Cricketers threaten to boycott South Africa tour amid pay dispute

Australian cricketers say they will boycott an Australian A tour of South Africa unless Cricket Australia takes action within days to resolve an ongoing pay dispute.

Usman Khawaja, Clea Smith and the Australian Cricketers Association boss Alistair Nicholson after the ACA Emergency Executive meeting in Sydney.

Usman Khawaja, Clea Smith and the Australian Cricketers Association boss Alistair Nicholson after the ACA Emergency Executive meeting in Sydney. Source: AAP

Australian cricketers will boycott an Australia A tour of South Africa unless Cricket Australia takes action within days to resolve a bitter pay dispute.

Players held an emergency meeting in Sydney on Sunday where they threatened to boycott the Australia A tour, scheduled to start on July 12.

The cricketers say unless a new Memorandum of Understanding is signed this week, they won't be touring.

Australian Cricketers Association (ACA) chief executive Alistair Nicholson says a "significant breakthrough" is needed for the tour to proceed.
"They don't intend to tour but the reality is they don't fly out of the country until Friday," Nicholson told reporters on Sunday.

"So the players are going to go into camp as planned and hopefully we can make some progress with regards to the MoU.

"There would need to be a significant breakthrough on the key issue of the revenue sharing model."

Batsman Usman Khawaja, named as Australia A captain, said boycotting the tour would be tough.

"It's not an easy thing to do ... but we are very united," Khawaja told reporters.

"We're still going to be training this week. Hopefully something can be resolved, but if it's not, it's a tough decision that sort of has to be made."
Some 230 Australian cricketers are effectively unemployed with their contracts with CA expiring on June 30.

CA and the ACA have been deadlocked for months regarding the next pay deal, with the sticking point being the issue of revenue sharing.

CA wants to scrap the model that has governed players' salaries since the first memorandum of understanding was signed 20 years ago, while the association says that won't happen.

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Source: AAP



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