Cricket Australia-players' association pay dispute comes to an end: Bangladesh tour to go ahead as planned

The longstanding pay dispute between Cricket Australia (CA) and the Australian Cricket Association (ACA) seems to have finally come to an end as both the parties have reportedly arrived at an agreement and signed a deal. [caption id=“attachment_3878001” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representative photo. Reuters[/caption] The agreement between CA chief James Sutherland and ACA counterpart Alistair Nicholson was signed on Monday morning in Melbourne. The specifications of the deal and the new five-year Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) were announced at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) via a formal press conference. “We have reached a good compromise - one that would be good for the game and good for Australian cricket,” CA chief Sutherland confirmed at the press conference on Thursday. As a result of this development, the Steve Smith-led Australian tours of Bangladesh and India, and the Ashes series to be played Down Under will proceed as planned. “The Bangladesh tour will be preceding with the pre-tour camp taking place next week at Darwin, and the series set to start two weeks later,” the CA chief said. One of the major changes of the new pay deal is that the players will receive up to 30% of the agreed revenue. Sutherland also agreed that both CA and ACA had regrets about how the drama surrounding the pay dispute had transpired. “This process hasn’t been easy and history will judge whether it was all worth it in the end,” he said “There is no denying that the debate itself has at times been difficult and even acrimonious. Relationships within the game have been tested and I know that’s been a bit of a turnoff for some fans,” he added when asked if the relationships between players and board were affected. The negotiations between CA and ACA had come to a standstill in June, leaving around 230 Australian cricketers officially unemployed. A temporary MoU was signed between both parties in order for the Australia’s women’s team to play in the 2017 Women’s World Cup. The Meg Lanning-led side continued to play the event but were eventually out of work when India put an end to their campaign in the semi-final of the tournament. As a part of this protest, Australia A had also boycotted a tour of South Africa. Talking about that series, Sutherland was content “that not a lot of cricket was lost”. “It’s been 30-odd days that the talks have been delayed, but not a lot of cricket is lost. It is a real shame that the Australia A tour was called off, but apart from that, not a lot of cricket was lost,” Sutherland told the reporters.