Australian cricketers should not consider strike: Ian Healy

Australia’s legendary wicketkeeper Ian Healy has urged the players not to strike as the deadlock over the pay model between Cricket Australia (CA) and its players continues. Recently CA’s chief executive James Sutherland had threatened the Australian players with unemployment in case the Australian Cricketers Association (ACA) fails to negotiate a new MoU by June 30.

“In the absence of the ACA negotiating a new MoU, players with contracts expiring in 2016-17 will not have contracts for 2017-18,” Sutherland had mentioned. This made David Warner, Australia’s vice-captain, to say that Australia “might not have a team for the Ashes”.

Australia’s professional cricketers had rejected the pay offer from the game’s governing body last month, saying the proposal was “a win for cricket administrators but a loss for cricket”. Over the last few years, relations between the board and the ACA have progressively worsened. Particularly it started back in 2014 after the departure of the former chief executive Paul Marsh. Healy, who has represented the nation in 119 Tests, was a part of the team in 1997 when it voted to consider strike action before negotiations were finally reached, which included the implementation of a revenue sharing model.

“I think a potential strike over a model of payment is just not on. The game is wealthy. Everyone is doing well. I would not even be threatening to have a strike. We are not talking about massive issues here.Strike action should be avoided at all costs and I think the players will feel that as well. They don’t want to strike,” Ian Healy told News Corp.

End of dispute not in sight

The great wicketkeeper who has been Australian Cricketers’ Association (ACA) president in the past, admitted that an end to the dispute was not in sight. “Neither side are budging or really able to describe their arguments believably to the other,” he said.

“Cricket Australia are yet to really produce their justifications in public. I think they want to create hungry cricketers who value performance. They feel First-Class cricketers are earning sufficient money at the moment but they have not come out and said that,” the former Aussie noted.

“They don’t want players who are not playing, who have been dropped or are on injury payments, earning millions of dollars. The ACA does not want to lose face by changing the model so Cricket Australia needs to think about how they can change the model without the players losing face,” Ian Healy conceded.