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Taylor confident Test tours will go ahead

Talks continue between CA and ACA as former skipper remains confident Test tours will go ahead as planned

Ex-Test captain and serving Cricket Australia Board member Mark Taylor has expressed his confidence that, in addition to the coming summer's Ashes series, Australia's scheduled tour to Bangladesh will go ahead as planned.

Speaking at Channel Nine's Melbourne launch of the 2017-18 season, the centrepiece of which is five Test matches against Joe Root's England, Taylor also confirmed that discussions over a new Memorandum of Understanding continue to take place away from public view.

The expiration of the previous MOU on June 30 and the failure of negotiations between CA and the Australian Cricketers' Association to agree on the next one has seen around 200 professional men's and women's cricketers fall out of contract and thus become unemployed.

The subsequent resolution by the players not to agree to play for any CA teams until a new MOU is signed led to speculation about the Bangladesh tour (due to start on August 18), a scheduled ODI series in India and the Ashes due to begin in Brisbane on November 23.

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However, when asked by his former vice-captain Ian Healy at today's launch about the likelihood of the current MOU impasse being resolved, Taylor indicated his view that Australia will have a full complement of players from which to choose their team for both upcoming Test series.

He also added that while an agreement is yet to be reached, negotiations remain ongoing to try and broker a deal.

"We've got to get together, we've got to sort this out and hopefully sooner rather than later," said Taylor, whose current tenure on CA's Board began in 2013.

"But I'm very confident we'll have a side for the Ashes, and I'm also very confident we'll have a side to go to Bangladesh which is only in a month's time.

"There's obviously been a lot of conjecture and speculation about what's going on.

"There is stuff going on behind the scenes, there is discussions.

"Obviously, the stuff that people are reading and hearing is not great for the game.

"Not good for Cricket Australia, not great for the ACA either.

"There's ongoing discussions and that's about all I'm going to say, I don’t think people here (at the Channel Nine launch) need to know more than that.

"But I like to think I'm a positive person – we'll have Ashes cricket this year."

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Taylor, who was Australia captain and a pivotal figure acting on behalf of players when the original MOU was struck in 1997, also acknowledged there had to be a willingness from both parties to compromise if a successful outcome was to be realised and added that the current relationship between players and the administration will require some repair once the agreement is reached.

“I think there’s got to be compromise on both sides, I really believe that,” he said today.

“I think at any negotiation you give and take. 

“When you get to that situation, which I hope we are getting very close to now, then you get close to a resolution.

“I’m confident there will be a resolution soon. I don’t know when but I just hope both sides keep working hard at it.

“The quicker we can move on and rebuild the relationship I think is important between CA and the ACA. 

“The quicker we can start rebuilding that I think that will be good for the game.

“I certainly hope (it’s not difficult). 

“You’ll have to ask the players that question but I think we all have to be adult about it.

“It’s a big game these days. Players are fully professional. 

“Cricket boards are trying to do what they think is right for the game in general so there’s going to be times when you disagree and that’s where we are at the moment.

“But I think both sides have to work towards finding a resolution which is in the best interests of the game and the players.”

Meetings between representatives of CA and the players' union continued today, including the organisations respective Chief Executives James Sutherland (CA) and Alistair Nicholson (ACA).

The current impasse centres on CA's proposal that the existing MOU be modified to offer players a capped share of surplus revenue generated by the game, while the players remain committed to the existing model whereby they receive a share of all gross cricket-related revenue.

The ACA has offered an alternative proposal that retains the current revenue-share model but reduces the portion payable to players from around 25 per cent to 22.5 per cent, while broadening the definition of 'revenue' to increase the total player payment pool.

That has been rejected by CA, who point out that their proposal – which was revised last month to include all players in the share of surplus model, but immediately dismissed by the players' union – grants all players significant pay increases while allowing CA greater financial flexibility to invest in grassroots infrastructure and programs.

In addition to including all men's and women's players in a surplus sharing model, CA's revised offer included pay increases over five years in excess of the 18 per cent rise (men) and 150 per cent (women) outlined in the original offer document tabled last March.