External financers can bail out out-of-contract Australian cricketers

Bailed for the time being

What’s the story?

In what might be music to the out-of-contract Australian players, several external agencies have surfaced which are willing to churn out finances for the unemployed players. 

"The ACA is in the process of securing a multimillion-dollar line of credit to support the unemployed players to counter attempts by CA to starve them out. Major international financial institutions have shown strong interests in supporting the players at this difficult time. The ACA is fielding support from private individuals who are also willing to back this move." ," an ACA spokesman informed.

The Details

If reports from the Sydney Morning Herald is to be believed several wealthy entities have expressed interest in "injecting millions of dollars” in 'loans'.

This money would be deposited in the hardship fund set up by the ACA and these finances could well last until Christmas. 

Many players are also willing to sign individual contracts with several sponsors despite the fact that this is a direct infringement of the clause set up by Cricket Australia. However, the impasse is such that the players are not losing too much sleep over stepping out and defying CA. 

Hence, it is not surprising that many ‘wealthy backers’ are willing to step in and invest into Australian cricket as they could kill two birds with one stone in the longer run. 

In case you didn’t know...

As many as 230 Australian cricketers- both male and female are without contracts and are effectively unemployed owing to a fallout between the ACA and CA over the pay structure. 

The CA wants to do away with the revenue sharing model, a proposal which has been rejected by the ACA and many players namely David Warner have been quite vocal in voicing their opinions and in doing so they have not minced any words in coming down hard on Cricket Australia.

The first casualty of the crisis was the A-tour when the Australia-A team called off their proposed A tour to South Africa as the MoU was not signed by the ACA and CA.

What's next?

The Australian women team is the only team playing amidst the crisis but once the ICC World Cup gets over even they will be rendered unemployed if the MoU is not signed. 

Also with the men’s team slated to tour Bangladesh in August, the intervening time for negotiation is slipping away rather quickly for CA. 

Australia is also hosting the Ashes later this year and although it is some time away, if this uncertainty continues, one cannot rule out even the Ashes being called off. 

Author's Take

Several former captains and players have asked the CA and ACA to resolve this dispute as Australian cricket and its credibility if taking a severe hit. 

Also, if future series are to be cancelled, the ICC would levy hefty sanctions on the CA, not something the Australian board would ideally want. 

Hence, both warring factions need to cede ground if they want to arrive at an amicable solution and this can only happen if dialogues persist without any vested interests or bloated egos.