Pay dispute over

Australian cricket’s long and ugly pay dispute is finally over, with Cricket Australia and the players finally agreeing on a peace deal on Thursday afternoon. After 10 months of butting heads, the sport’s worst industrial crisis in 40 years had accelerated towards a resolution following a threat last week by CA chief executive James Sutherland to have the matter ruled upon by independent arbitration. The negotiating teams from CA and the Australian Cricketers’ Association had worked long into the night throughout this week to settle their remaining differences in drafting a heads of agreement, as the troubled talks threatened to go off course again.