The escalating tension between Cricket Australia and players has reached new heights after chief executive James Sutherland threatened in an explosive email that they would not be paid beyond June 30 unless they accepted the governing body's proposed overhaul of player remuneration.
The correspondence, sent by Sutherland to Australian Cricketers' Association chief Alistair Nicholson on Friday and forwarded by CA to players around the country, suddenly casts into question what kind of team Australia may be able to field beyond the end of the financial year, starting with August's Test series in Bangladesh.
Sutherland has not sat in on the bitter pay talks but weighed into the dispute by revealing: "CA is not contemplating alternative contracting arrangements to pay players beyond 30 June if their contracts have expired."
In a blunt and calculated warning, he said: "In the absence of the ACA negotiating a new MOU, players with contracts expiring in 2016-17 will not have contracts for 2017-18"; that players with existing multi-year state or Big Bash contracts would be required to play in 2017-18 even if a new pay deal is not struck; and that if a new MOU was not agreed the Australian women's squad for the World Cup in June and July would be "paid in advance" and employed only until the end of the tournament in England.
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Six months out from a home Ashes series, Sutherland's email confirms a landscape of a national sport at war with its talent.
If it was designed to frighten players into submission, encouraging some to break ranks, then it backfired. Players appear to be further emboldened by what they regard as an incendiary and aggressive approach by head office and are vowing to resist CA's bid to dispose of the percentage-of-revenue pay model. They say privately that if the governing body continues down this path they won't have a team.
The ACA had on Friday moved to enter mediation with CA over the bitter pay negotiations, which show no signs of reaching a resolution.
The Sutherland email indicates that CA has no stomach for that or plans on bending in any significant form on the proposals they presented to the union and players in March.
The CEO told Nicholson that "the ACA is fast running out of time to engage with CA's proposal and optimise the outcome for players".
"In the coming weeks, CA and states will be making contract offers to players," Sutherland wrote. "The terms of these contracts will be consistent with CA's proposal, and contracts will be conditional on a new MOU being in place."
CA, through executive general manager of team performance Pat Howard, has already approached Steve Smith, David Warner, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins about signing three-year contracts, not the standard one-year deals, on the condition that they sit out the Indian Premier League. Those offers have been rejected unanimously, with Australia's top players unwilling in any case to discuss new contracts until an MOU is agreed.
Sutherland's missive confirms they will effectively be free agents from July 1 unless a peace deal is somehow struck, extinguishing the possibility of the current MOU being rolled over for another year or for series-by-series contracts to be struck. That will particularly put the squeeze on state and women's players, who will suddenly be without an income.
As for Australia's international commitments, there are more than 70 state players on multi-year contracts who, according to Sutherland's email, would be made to continue to play. In the absence of an new pay deal they shape as the only players for Australian selectors to choose from for the Australia A tour of South Africa in July and August and then a two-Test series in Bangladesh, which is yet to be finalised. That series is more than three months away but the extraordinary circumstance of a makeshift side being sent to the subcontinent is not out of the question.
Sutherland accuses the ACA of having "unfairly placed current players in a difficult position".
"I understand that some have been made to feel that accepting the relatively minor but necessary changes to the existing pay model, while being paid more, would somehow be 'letting the side down'," Sutherland wrote. "This is nonsense."
The CA chief executive added: "The ACA's reluctance to recognise the necessity of change and innovation as circumstances change has become a disappointing and consistent theme. The ACA opposed the concept of scheduling the BBL in January, along with the formation of the WBBL in 2015-16, the introduction of day/night Test matches and the inclusion of women in a combined MOU with men."
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