Indian broadcasters have expressed their frustration at an Australian pay war that threatens a limited-overs tour of the subcontinent.
CA chief executive James Sutherland has attempted to turn up the heat on his Australian Cricketers' Association counterpart Alistair Nicholson by declaring the governing body would seek to have the long-running dispute settled by a third party, such as a former Supreme Court judge, if the two parties could not strike a heads of agreement for a new memorandum of understanding by Monday.
![Cricket Australia CEO James Sutherland has suggested having the pay dispute settled by a third party.](http://web.archive.org./web/20170731154305im_/https://www.fairfaxstatic.com.au/content/dam/images/g/x/l/1/i/i/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gxkg3s.png/1501239818800.jpg)
The two parties continued to negotiate on Friday in a bid to avoid arbitration, with team performance chief Pat Howard in discussions with Nicholson into the evening. Discussions were set to continue over the weekend. CA remains optimistic a heads of agreement can soon be reached.
The CA board also met on Friday to discuss the crisis, while players began to debate whether they would attend arbitration, for they are not obliged to.
The prospect of arbitration comes with a Test series in Bangladesh next month in increasing danger of not going ahead and with Australia desperate to avoid the commercial and reputational fallout that would accompany having to pull out of a short-form tour of India in October.
Indian media giant Star Sports has the rights to that series and broadcasters on the subcontinent and is losing patience with the standoff in Australia as it seeks to do the sums about future television deals.
ACA commercial manager Tim Cruickshank has returned from India after meeting with major companies in Mumbai about licensing rights to Australian players, 230 of whom have been out of contract since July 1. He also met with broadcasters.
"It is an interesting market dominated by Indian cricket stars however there is definitely scope for the Australian players too. The IPL has given the Australian players increased exposure and created a strong local brand for them," Cruickshank told Fairfax Media on Friday.
"With the players spending more and more time in India it opens up opportunities to work closely with the Indian people and capitalise on their time abroad.
"It was also interesting meeting with the Indian broadcasters to understand their frustration and the impact the current impasse is having on their ability to value rights. They were keen to understand ways they could eliminate some risk and build a stronger working relationship directly with the players.
"The word got around quickly that I was visiting and the Indian people are very interested in the negotiations given the planned tour there later this year."
Cruickshank is heading up a business arm of the ACA called The Cricketers' Brand that was established in an effort to monetise players' image rights, which are no longer controlled by CA while players are out of contract.
"It works a bit differently in India. Large companies like to license the rights of the playing group upfront and 'onsell' them," he said.
"Obviously, these types of deals are structured with certain terms and conditions to ensure the players are protected and their attributes are used in the right way. There is genuine interest. However, there is still a lot of detail to work through."
It also emerged on Friday that the cricketers will have the right to avoid arbitration. That the now expired MOU is not registered with Fair Work Australia means the ACA cannot be forced to attend.
Sports lawyer Darren Kane, who has assisted Australian batsman Usman Khawaja in other contractual matters, said it could take months for resolution through arbitration.
"In terms of what you have got to prove [to win], so to speak, when you refer the dispute to arbitration, you ask [yourself], 'what are we asking the arbitrator to do and with reference to what?'," he said.
"Are you saying, 'we have got two pay models here?' Are you saying to the arbitrator, 'do you pick the best one?' There would have to be a fair bit of craft to what you are asking the arbitrator to do. That's a pretty difficult thing, I would have thought. The players might just want to turn up and stonewall once they get there – I don't know."
It's also been pointed out that an arbitrator would have to quickly come up to speed on the nuances of the recently expired MOU.
Sutherland has said the players would immediately resume being paid when arbitration opened. As of Friday, it had been four weeks since the MOU had expired, saving CA $2.4 million in wages, which are set to be redirected to grassroots.
However, players maintain they will only play – regardless of payments resuming – if a heads of agreement or a full MOU is completed. They reinforced that stance with a vote at a meeting in Sydney last Monday.
The findings from arbitration are binding. The players had twice called for mediation but this more informal process was rejected by CA, despite it allowing the two parties to form their own settlement.
There are claims CA and the ACA were close to agreeing to a modernised, hybrid gross-revenue scheme mid-week but CA then blindsided the players with threats of arbitration. CA had been resolute in the need to drop the gross-revenue payment model used for 20 years, replacing it with a set pool of payments plus a share in only of surplus revenue.