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July 7, 2017

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Australia ‘A’ tour of S Africa off after player boycott

AUSTRALIA’S “A” tour of South Africa has fallen victim to the pay dispute between the players and Cricket Australia after the squad decided yesterday not to travel in the absence of a new agreement.

With talks between the union and the governing body deadlocked, around 230 players were left effectively unemployed when the previous 5-year pay agreement expired at June-end.

The Australian Cricketers’ Association held an emergency meeting in Sydney last weekend and the players said they would boycott the “A” tour unless a new memorandum of understanding was signed this week.

“It is with great frustration that with no progress towards resolving the current dispute, Australia A players confirm they will not tour South Africa,” the player’s union said in a statement yesterday. “All players are deeply disappointed at the behavior of CA which forces this course of action, given the players would rather be playing for their country.”

CA expressed its own disappointment in a statement.

“Cricket Australia regrets that players have made this decision despite progress made in talks between CA and the ACA over the past week,” it read. “While a new MOU has not yet been agreed, CA is of the view that these talks should have enabled the tour to proceed as planned.”

At the heart of the acrimonious dispute is the CA’s insistence that the two-decade-old model, under which players get a fixed percentage of revenue, should be jettisoned.

CA believes the revenue-share model is unfit for modern times and is starving grassroots cricket of funding, while players say it has underpinned the game’s growth and prosperity over the past 20 years.

The “A” team, captained by Usman Khawaja, was scheduled to play two four-day matches and a 50-over tri-series against India and South Africa on the tour.

The senior Australia team is scheduled to play a two-test series in Bangladesh in August and September before some one-dayers in India and then the Ashes at home against England.




 

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