Dough fight set to end for warring cricketers
CRICKET’S uncivil war is over.
After months of rage and backbiting, Cricket Australia chief executive James Sutherland and his Australian Cricketers Association counterpart Alistair Nicholson have agreed on all key terms and are set to announce at a press conference as early as today that at long last, a deal is reached.
Only a monumental lastminute spanner in the works could derail a final agreement being signed off now after both parties were last night working feverishly on finalising the very last details and aiming for a declaration to be made today, or tomorrow, in Melbourne.
Despite or perhaps due to the imminent threat of court arbitration, the Ashes have been saved and Steve Smith – who will appear on Fox Sports tonight – will all but certainly be leading his Test team to Bangladesh in late August.
It’s understood the players will get a revenue share model in the new MOU, but with a significant makeover that Cricket Australia believes will allow them more financial flexibility to administer to the grassroots of the game.
The ACA’s other non-negotiable was to insist on back pay, and it appears CA has also been willing to make this compromise in the interests of shaking hands on the mess.
Back pay to cover the salaries of male and female players left uncontracted since June 30 will cost CA a couple of million dollars, but it’s nothing compared to the irreparable destruction that was hanging over the game if commercial partners walked away, and the Ashes was compromised.