A FINAL refusal of mediation from Cricket Australia chairman David Peever has put any chance of an immediate end to cricket’s pay battle back in the hands of the player’s union.
The Herald Sun has seen Peever’s response to the request from Australian Cricketers Association president Greg Dyer declaring it “regrettable” and “confusing” it would call for mediation without making any effort to first negotiate.
The CA chairman said the union had made it clear as far back as December that there could be no talks about anything without a commitment to continuing the 20-year-old revenue share model.
Cricket Australia chairman David Peever rejected the players’ offer of mediation.Source:AAP
That was three months before CA put forward its pay proposal for immediate and large raises for female players and a greater spend on grassroots cricket.
Peever, in a letter sent to Dyer on Friday, maintained the ACA’s refusal to open the lines of communication didn’t allow for discussion on what he called “significant problems” with the current player payments model.
“This is a regrettable approach because CA’s proposal features substantial increases in player payments while allowing greater flexibility to address the underfunding of grassroots cricket over the next five years,” Peever wrote.
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“You indicate that the ACA has offered flexibility within the negotiation process around certain issues. However this does not address the significant problems with the current player payments model from CA’s perspective.
“While we fully respect the enormous contribution made by the game’s elite players, it is also true that player payments have grown by 63 per cent for international men and 53 per cent for domestic men over the past five years.
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“This is unsustainable while the grassroots of the game remains chronically underfunded. It is therefore disappointing that the ACA has not been open to that discussion.”
Within its pay proposal the ACA said grassroots cricket could benefit from as much as $ 595 million over the next five years, with the same amount spent on player payments, both equating to 22.5 per cent of CA’s total revenue.
The union believes that would still leave $ 1.45 billion for CA to spend on running the game.
CA chief executive James Sutherland told the ABC this week it needed $ 20-30 million per year “to really make a difference” in grassroots cricket but investment worth “hundreds of hundreds of millions of dollars” on facilities was necessary.
Sutherland remains defiant.Source:AFP
Peever’s latest salvo has ensured the battle lines shift to the UK where CA chief executive James Sutherland and high performance manager Pat Howard, who is on the negotiating team, will travel for the Champions Trophy.
ACA boss Alistair Nicholson has also flown to the UK to update the Australian team on the state of play with all of them out of contract shortly after the tournament ends on July 1 should a new Memorandum of Understanding not be signed.
Peever suggested “confusing” tactics from the ACA, which has enlisted former union heavyweight Greg Combet to advise on tactics, didn’t represent a “genuine attempt to find a way forward” in negotiations which could yet put the Ashes in jeopardy.
Originally published as Peeved off! CA rejects players’ peace offer
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