New MOU twist amid 'unpaid' contracts claim

Update 8:30pm AEST: Cricket Australia has denied that any formal decision has been made on player contracts for next month's proposed Australia A tour of South Africa that looms as the first challenge should agreement on a new Memorandum of Understanding not be reached.

News Corp Australia reported today that CA was considering the option of offering 'temporary' contracts that cover insurance and costs but provide no remuneration to those members of the 14-man Australia A squad who will be uncontracted if a new MOU is not signed by this weekend.

A CA spokesman said today that no decision had been taken in relation to the Australia A tour, scheduled to begin on July 8, and reiterated that CA were "100 per cent focused on reaching a resolution on the MOU by June 30" when the current agreement expires.

If no deal can be reached between CA and the Australian Cricketers Association by midnight on Friday, around 200 of the nation's professional cricketers – reportedly including a handful in the Australia A squad - will become unemployed.

Quick single: View the Australia A squad

They are among the 14 players due to tour South Africa for two four-day matches from July 8, with a bulk of the other players in the squad believed to hold multi-year state-based contracts that are expected to remain in place once the MOU deadline passes.

Today's report claimed that CA planned to offer those squad members temporary deals as a short-term compromise that would still enable them to push their claims for this summer's Ashes campaign despite the ongoing stand-off.

Earlier today, ACA president Greg Dyer indicated that the option of paid interim contracts, such as those signed by members of the Australia women's team for the duration of the current ICC World Cup in the UK, might provide a potential compromise if the MOU remained unsigned.

However, Dyer noted if that was to happen, negotiations that have remained stalled for months would need to show rapid progress and he repeated his call for CA Chief Executive James Sutherland to become immediately involved in the process alongside his ACA counterpart, Alistair Nicholson.

Sutherland met with Nicholson earlier this month, but only returns to Australia this week having attended ICC meetings and the opening phase of the World Cup where Australia are defending champions.

"I think we'd have to see some progress before that (temporary contracts) would be a likely outcome, so that's not impossible," Dyer said at a golf event in Sydney today, staged to raise money for the ACA's player hardship fund.

"If the CEOs can get together and make some progress towards an outcome then tour contracts may well be a good short-term resolution.

"But we're still so far apart it's difficult to imagine that's where we're going to end."

Dyer also claimed there seemed little hope that agreement will be reached by midnight on Friday over on the terms of a new MOU that will cover relations between CA and their 300 or so contracted men's and women's players for the next five years.

At the core of the dispute is the revenue-share model that has underpinned previous agreements over the past two decades and under which players receive around 25 per cent of CA's agreed cricket-related income.

CA is looking to modify that model to allow it greater flexibility in deployment of its resources, with an alternative proposal that surplus income be shared among players rather than a mandated proportion of gross revenue.

The ACA remains staunchly opposed to any shift to the existing means by which player payments are calculated and distributed, and has tabled its own alternative whereby the definition of revenue is broadened and players share a slightly smaller (22.5 per cent) share of that increased income.

Last Friday, CA offered a compromise in which the proposed $20 million cap on those surpluses is increased and the scheme is broadened to include all domestic players, as well as delivers a greater pay rise to domestic cricketers than was originally offered.

That deal was immediately rejected by the ACA amid claims that it did not reflect the players' insistence that the existing revenue share model be retained.

"The fundamentals of the deal are nowhere near resolved," Dyer said today.

"We see the retention of the revenue-share model as being fundamental and we have not been able to engage sensibly.

"We don't see the case for change.

"It's fair to say we still remain a long way apart (and) it is extremely likely that as of July 1, we'll be jumping over the cliff together.

"The players are dismayed, we are hugely disappointed that we are where we are.

"We're at the cliff point … and it's not where we wanted to be."