Cricket's at a Knife-Edge Point; It should be CEO to CEO Brendon Julian
Cricket's at a Knife-Edge Point; It should be CEO to CEO Brendon Julian
Brendon Julian, the former Australian all-rounder, has urged Cricket Australia (CA) chief executive James Sutherland to take charge of the bitter pay dispute engulfing Australian cricket ahead of next week's looming deadline.
The impasse between CA and the Australian Cricketers' Association (ACA) appears no closer to a resolution before the current Memorandum of Understanding expires on June 30. Julian, who is a prominent television commentator in Australia, said Sutherland needed to assert himself in the negotiations. To date, Sutherland has appeared only once in a dispute that has festered for over six months.
"Cricket's at a knife-edge point, I think, and it should be CEO to CEO," Julian said on Wednesday (June 21). "It should always be like that in negotiations of this importance. And if you can't get anywhere, then you go to mediation. I'm just so surprised it's gone along like this. I think it's time the CEO steps in takes this thing a few steps forward.
"I don't think they're intentionally seeing it as 'us and them', but I think Cricket Australia's got to make sure they negotiate, pure and simple, and listen to the players," he added. "The whole atmosphere of it feels like we've gone back 20 years."
With less than 10 days to go until the deadline, there is much uncertainty hovering over Australian cricket with The Sydney Morning Herald reporting that leading Australian players - who won't be paid from July 1- are contemplating staging unofficial exhibition matches. It has also been reported that Australian players may also put their hand up for South Africa's new Twenty20 competition if a deal can't be brokered.
Amid all of this, a new landmark pay agreement deal was announced in the Australian Football League (AFL) - Australia's biggest sports code - on Tuesday, a day prior. While CA is attempting to overhaul its 20-year revenue share model, the AFL's new pay model includes a 28 per cent share of unbudgeted AFL revenue and 11.2 per cent of unforeseen club revenues.
Alistair Nicholson, the ACA chief executive, hailed the AFL's pay agreement a success. "What these two parties are trying to achieve is what cricket has enjoyed for 20 years," he said. "The AFL is at a different stage of evolving the partnership than cricket. But what's clear is that this sense of co-operation is the way to go."
A CA spokesperson said it was unfair to compare the respective pay models. "First, it only contemplates a share of revenue above budget forecast, rather than a fixed percentage of defined revenue streams," said the CA spokesperson. "Second, it takes the costs of generating that revenue into account, whereas the current cricket model does not and is simply a gross share. So this model is very different to cricket's and in important respects, is much closer to the modified model that CA has proposed."
Brendon Julian, the former Australian all-rounder, has urged Cricket Australia (CA) chief executive James Sutherland to take charge of the bitter pay dispute engulfing Australian cricket ahead of next week's looming deadline.
The impasse between CA and the Australian Cricketers' Association (ACA) appears no closer to a resolution before the current Memorandum of Understanding expires on June 30. Julian, who is a prominent television commentator in Australia, said Sutherland needed to assert himself in the negotiations. To date, Sutherland has appeared only once in a dispute that has festered for over six months.
"Cricket's at a knife-edge point, I think, and it should be CEO to CEO," Julian said on Wednesday (June 21). "It should always be like that in negotiations of this importance. And if you can't get anywhere, then you go to mediation. I'm just so surprised it's gone along like this. I think it's time the CEO steps in takes this thing a few steps forward.
"I don't think they're intentionally seeing it as 'us and them', but I think Cricket Australia's got to make sure they negotiate, pure and simple, and listen to the players," he added. "The whole atmosphere of it feels like we've gone back 20 years."
With less than 10 days to go until the deadline, there is much uncertainty hovering over Australian cricket with The Sydney Morning Herald reporting that leading Australian players - who won't be paid from July 1- are contemplating staging unofficial exhibition matches. It has also been reported that Australian players may also put their hand up for South Africa's new Twenty20 competition if a deal can't be brokered.
Amid all of this, a new landmark pay agreement deal was announced in the Australian Football League (AFL) - Australia's biggest sports code - on Tuesday, a day prior. While CA is attempting to overhaul its 20-year revenue share model, the AFL's new pay model includes a 28 per cent share of unbudgeted AFL revenue and 11.2 per cent of unforeseen club revenues.
Alistair Nicholson, the ACA chief executive, hailed the AFL's pay agreement a success. "What these two parties are trying to achieve is what cricket has enjoyed for 20 years," he said. "The AFL is at a different stage of evolving the partnership than cricket. But what's clear is that this sense of co-operation is the way to go."
A CA spokesperson said it was unfair to compare the respective pay models. "First, it only contemplates a share of revenue above budget forecast, rather than a fixed percentage of defined revenue streams," said the CA spokesperson. "Second, it takes the costs of generating that revenue into account, whereas the current cricket model does not and is simply a gross share. So this model is very different to cricket's and in important respects, is much closer to the modified model that CA has proposed."
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