A development tour of South Africa has become the first casualty of Australian cricketers’ pay dispute with the sport’s national governing body. The ACA on Thursday said the Australia A tour will not go ahead, the first time Australian players have boycotted any tour.
The Australia ‘A’ side boycotted their tour to South Africa over the pay dispute with sport’s national governing body. The 19-member squad led by Usman Khawaja was earlier scheduled to travel to Johannesburg from Brisbane on Friday.
“By making this call, the Australia A players have sacrificed their own ambitions for the collective an incredibly selfless act that shows their strength and overall commitment to the group,” the ACA said in a statement.
Cricket Australia in a statement said it regrets that players have made the decision despite the progress in talks between CA and the ACA in meetings over the past week.
“Cricket Australia regrets that players have made this decision despite progress made in talks between CA and the ACA in meetings over the past week,” Cricket Australia said in a statement. “While a new MoU has not yet been agreed, CA is of the view that these talks should have enabled the tour to proceed as planned.”
Former Australia captain Michael Clarke suggested that the issue between Cricket Australia and ACA need to be resolved in the background while the players should focus on playing the game.
“What needs to happen is keep the current MoU for the next 12 months and allow the players to get back to what they do best,” Clarke said. “Cricket Australia, the ACA, please go behind closed doors and sort this in private. The players want to play … let’s allow them to play while this stuff gets sorted out in the background.”
Australia ‘A’ were scheduled to play the tri-series that included India ‘A’ as the third team.
Source: Cricket.com.pk