Australia pay row: Governing body tells players it wants deal by next week

Australia’s cricketers have been told it is “time to get the show back on the road” and end a long-running dispute that has left 230 players unemployed.
An ‘A’ tour of South Africa was cancelled amid the row between players and their governing body over the scrapping of a revenue-sharing model.
Cricket Australia’s chief executive said there was “increasing urgency” with an Ashes series this winter.
“If it is not resolved, we’re proposing arbitration,” James Sutherland said.
“We’re prepared to accept whatever decision comes. In cricketing parlance, we will accept the umpire’s decision and move on.”
Players’ body the Australian Cricketers’ Association (ACA) responded by saying it would rather mediation to the “adversarial process” of arbitration, but that it would “continue to work intensively” on negotiations.
“Cricket Australia has lost the players and most of the game’s stakeholders in the [dispute],” read a union statement.
“And now, after pushing the players into unemployment, an extended period of a lack of financial transparency, after three months of rejecting mediation, and only after the recent arrival of the Cricket Australia chief executive into talks, CA discovers the need for urgency.”
Cricket Australia, the sport’s governing body in the country, produces a memorandum of understanding with the players – represented by the ACA – every five years. The last agreement expired on 30 June.
In March, the governing body proposed salary increases for men and women, which removed a clause from players’ contracts guaranteeing them a percentage of the organisation’s revenue.
This was rejected by the ACA, which also turned down a further revised pay offer. (BBC Sport)