Pay talks won't distract Test stars: CA

James Sutherland says pay talks are progressing and the Test side won't be distracted by the battle between Cricket Australia and the players' union.

Cricket Australia boss James Sutherland insists ongoing pay talks won't distract the national side from their bid for a breakthrough Test series win in India.

CA and the Australian Cricketers' Association (ACA) remain locked in tense negotiations over the next Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). The current deal expires on June 30.

The two parties have clashed on several fronts, but the major disagreement relates to CA's desire to scrap the fixed-revenue payment model that has been in place for 20 years.

Talks are ongoing, with CA expected to lodge a formal offer in coming weeks. The backdrop to the pay dispute is Australia's four-Test series against India.

"From the players' point of view, it's the furthest thing from their mind. They're absolutely ingrained in this contest here," Sutherland told ABC radio in Bangalore.

"For them, it seems a long, long way away.

"Things will bubble away back home. We will, I'm sure, make progress over the next little while.

"Bits and pieces will be written in the newspapers and they'll pick up snippets from there, but it won't be any sort of distraction for them."

Sutherland was saying little on when his organisation would table a formal offer to the ACA, but added it was "absolutely committed to a partnership with the ACA".

"There's sure to be various issues where we have a difference of opinion, but both parties are very intent on what's good for cricket," he said.

"We have many more things in common than we do differences of opinion.

"We'll work through those. I'm pretty confident we'll be able to see that through over the course of the next few weeks."

ACA president Greg Dyer criticised CA last week in a Fairfax Media column.

"A new philosophy has emerged at Cricket Australia. A new language of "control" in which, increasingly, the players seem to be regarded as cost centres or not generating enough return on investment," Dyer wrote.


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Source: AAP



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