With players not on Cricket Australia payroll, they can play for independent leagues and Australia A players have pulled out of touring South Africa. (Source: AP)
Amidst the ongoing tussle between Cricket Australia (CA) and the Australian Cricketers Association (ACA), CA chairman David Peever has come out and defended the CA’s offer to settle the dispute and said that it was a healthy proposal.
In a column for the Australian, Peever, wrote, “It includes healthy pay increases for male players,” he wrote, “A more than 150 per cent increase in pay for female players and gender equity in both pay and conditions, along with a share of any surplus for all players and major increases in other support and benefits.
“The ACA has responded by not only rejecting that proposal (and recent concessions) out of hand but by launching a campaign of such sustained ferocity that anyone could be forgiven for thinking CA was proposing the reintroduction of slavery”, he added.
Commenting on the role played by the ACA he said, “Not content with that level of overreaction, the ACA has gone much further, refusing to allow players to tour, threatening to drive away commercial sponsors and damage the prospects of broadcast partners, lock up player intellectual property into its own business ventures, and even stage its own games. It’s a reckless strategy that can only damage the game and therefore the interests of the ACA’s members.”
Peever also wrote of the importance of funds for development of cricket at the grassroots level and wrote, “CA and the state and territory associations are responsible for the health of the entire game, not just the elite level where more than 70 per cent of the game’s total revenue is presently directed. We also have a responsibility to ensure that a fair share of the game’s resources is directed to other levels, including junior and grassroots cricket, where it is most sorely needed.”
Stay updated with the latest sports news across Cricket, Football, Chess, and more. Catch all the action with real-time live cricket score updates and in-depth coverage of ongoing matches.
2 min read
