Australia A boycotts tour of South Africa
With its bluff called, the nation's Ashes preparations in disarray and still struggling with the classic omelette in the limited confines of the staff kitchenette at Jolimont Street, Cricket Australia's big guns are swinging wildly, like Shane Warne on 99 at the WACA Ground.
But there is sympathy for the game's administrators in some quarters. The Australian's Chip Le Grand must be nursing a chronic case of RSI after giving the egg-beater a decent run around the outfield on Thursday.
"Australia's richest cricketers are refusing to share with our best women players a record $58.5 million bonus," screamed his lead, arguing that "the Australian Cricketers' Association decision to deny women the financial spoils of the past five years is at odds with its criticism of Cricket Australia for refusing to include women in a future revenue-sharing agreement".
The dishonesty! Women players were not a party to that bonus pool, the contract for which was signed in 2012 and the period for which ended last week.
Our women players have never asked for a cent of it. It's like Tatts offering a share of the winnings on a jackpot ticket to customers who didn't buy it. The players' association is seeking a new deal under which revenue (including an identical bonus for unforecast upside) will be shared by the men and women players for the next five years.
CA is sneakily (and clumsily) trying here to divide and conquer its workforce. How's that going for it?
Over at industry super-funded The New Daily, Monash academic Tom Heenan genuflects to CA chairman David Peever as "an admirer of [John] Howard's WorkChoices" who "introduced many of its anti-union measures at Rio Tinto". Peever, we're told, was "managing director of its Australian operations".
This is the same guff every retired wicketkeeper with a hobby CommSec account falls for. Peever never introduced any anti-union measures at Rio because he never ran any of its major businesses. He was never managing director of Rio Tinto's Australian operations, he was managing director of its Melbourne reception desk; overseer of the fan mail in-tray.
He had fewer than 10 staff and reported to Rio's head of iron ore in Perth – someone who did actually introduce anti-union measures and manage operations. Peever never even sat on the miner's executive committee or reported to the chief executive. And isn't it starting to show ...
