Team won't travel for tours until the MoU is finalized: Steve Smith

Australian skipper Steve Smith has that there are a few key elements in the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Cricket Australia and Australian Cricketers’ Association (ACA)which needs to be discussed. He also stated that his side will not be travelling to Bangladesh for the tour which is scheduled at the end of this month without the MoU.

After both CA and ACA met today, its quite evident that some progress has been made in the issue. Though things haven’t resolved as yet, this is a positive sign for Australian cricket and its fans. Once both the parties are on the same page, all the 230 odd cricketers who were left unemployed will be re-contracted.

“If agreement on the new MOU, which was due to come into effect on July 1 could not be reached this week then the unresolved items would be sent to independent and expeditious arbitration to achieve a binding ruling,” CA’s Chief Executive James Sutherland said last Thursday.

Australia A players showed great courage

Speaking to Fox Sports, Smith had appreciated the courage shown by the Australia A players to boycott the South Africa tour last month. Australia A players had decided to not participate in the tour as the altercation between the players and the board was not resolved. He also added that it won’t be fair if the senior players travel for tours after what has happened in recent times.

“I don’t think it would be fair for us to go away after the (Australia) A guys were very strong on not going away on their tour, for us to then go away I don’t think that’s fair. CA know this, they’ve been told this. I told (CA’s Executive General Manager Team Performance) Pat Howard personally that this was how things were going to be if there wasn’t a deal done,” Smith said.

It’s difficult to handle these situations as a captain

Being the captain of the team, there’s the added responsibility on the 27-year-old to deal with the situation a lot more carefully. His teammates like David Warner, Mitchell Starc and various others have been quite vocal on social media expressing their views on this issue, but being the skipper, he says he has to be careful with every word he uses.

“It’s had some difficult moments,” Smith said tonight. When this is all over with, I have to deal with Pat Howard, I have to deal with the (CA) Board and speak to James Sutherland so I have to be careful with what sort of lines I tread. Some guys have been really vocal on social media and I think the way for me to lead in this dispute is to be able to talk to guys behind the scenes that are at the table and doing the job,” he opined.

He also mentioned that he has been in talks with Alistair Nicholson, ACA Chief Executive and Pat Howard. He sounded optimistic about the resolution of this entire feud but the clouds are very much existing on what will happen in the time to come.

“I’ve been talking to Alistair (Nicholson, ACA Chief Executive) and Pat Howard on the phone most days so it’s been a long process and hopefully it comes to a close soon,” he concluded.