Cricket Australia ready for arbitration in pay row

MELBOURNE: Cricket Australia said on Thursday it will take its bitter pay dispute with players to independent arbitration if agreement cannot be reached by early next week, with a tour to Bangladesh looming.

Chief executive James Sutherland said unless intensive negotiations over the next few days produce a compromise, his organisation will seek the intervention of an industrial umpire — likely to be a retired judge — to resolve the impasse.

The first match on the Test tour of Bangladesh is due to start on August 22, followed by a one-day tour to India in September and October ahead of the showpiece home Ashes series, beginning in November.

“We are at the stage now where we need to address this situation and cricket needs to get on with the game,” Sutherland told reporters in Melbourne.“We need players employed, contracted, focused not only on upcoming tours, but indeed an exciting season of cricket ahead.

“We feel what the ACA (Australian Cricketers’ Association) has proposed actually jeopardises not only the Bangladesh tour, but in turn the India one-day tour and even beyond that, dare I say it, the Ashes.”

The ACA responded late Thursday saying it will be working to resolve its dispute with CA.“Arbitration is an adversarial process more akin to a court room,” the ACA said in a statement.

“A further concern is the time it would take for an arbiter to meaningfully understand the complexities of revenue sharing in elite professional sport and then to make judgement.

“This compromises the needs for urgency. That said, in the spirit of doing all we can to resolve the dispute, the ACA will continue to work intensively in the CEO to CEO negotiations which are currently taking place with a view to achieving resolution.”

After months of negotiations, the players and CA have failed to reach agreement on a new pay deal, leaving 230 cricketers unemployed since the end of June when their contracts expired.