Australian cricketers will not step back from the Ashes says Ian Chappell

The Australia Cricket board suffered a huge setback as their plans to lure the country’s top cricketers by throwing in hefty pay offers failed miserably. According to former Australian great Ian Chappell, the parties will now try to sort out a deal in time in order to prevent a Ashes Boycott, which could turn out to be a black mark in Australia’s cricket history.

The Aussie cricketers have turned down an offer from Cricket Australia which was expected to end a 20-year-old revenue sharing model when the next collective bargaining gets underway in July.

The proposed deal would see the cricketers bag much more than what the current 5 year CBA but permits only the international players to have their hand on the leftovers. The domestic cricketers, on the other hand, will have to satisfy themselves with fixed amounts.

Former test captain, Ian Chappell who was a prominent figure in the 1970’s when the harshest pay dispute in Australia cricket history took place, is happy with the decision taken by the current Aussie cricketers.

‘I’m delighted the players are sticking together and staying strong on it,’ Chappell said in comments published by Sydney newspaper the Daily Telegraph on Tuesday.

‘From afar it looks as though the board are trying to splinter the players, which I find a rather strange tactic.

‘Maybe the board thought, “You know what the players are like”. They were working on the theory of greed, that you keep the top blokes happy with money and they won’t care about the rest.

‘It looks like they’ve picked the wrong target.’

James Sutherland, the CEO of Cricket Australia, gave a bottom line for all the cricketers to come to terms with the contract or threatened them off unemployment. The announcement of the deadline to be 30^th June resulted in chaos in the Australian camp earlier this month.

The reply from the Australian cricketers:

But the move went completely against the CA as the Australian Cricketer’s Association, the player’s union and star batsman David Warner hit back hard hinting that the players might pull off from the upcoming five –test Ashes series scheduled to kick off in November.

After the revolt from the Australian cricketers, CA has chosen to keep shut. Ian Chappell claimed that there is scope for the players to do something similar as Chris Gayle did and play as free agents in the most fruitful domestic leagues in the world. But he also hoped for the situation to come under control.

“There will be more posturing and eventually they’ll come to their sense” added Chappell.