Australian Off Season 2017

[TheJediBrah]

Still waiting for official confirmation. Wouldn't be surprised if they waited another few weeks to fully finalise it, just to nuke the Bangladesh tour.

Maybe that's what got negotiations over the line.

"We can't agree on much, but we both don't really want to have to go to Bangladesh . . . it's a deal"

 

[Gnske]

On the plus side, that's two more tests removed from our futures of ***** defending the worst pitches since Nagpur 2015

 

[Spikey]

I need these Bangladesh tests, I need the likes I will get from them

 

[Spark]

Given what Clarke said over the weekend, should we read anything into the publicised meeting with Smith or is that being too conspiratorial?

 

[stephen]

I think Clarke is just showing us again that while he was a brilliant on field captain he really didn't inspire the other players.

 

[howardj]

This is starting to worry me.

Wouldn't be surprised if the ACA try to string this out long enough for the Bangladesh tour (which the senior Australian players don't want to go on) to get canned.

 

[quincywagstaff]

This is starting to worry me.

Wouldn't be surprised if the ACA try to string this out long enough for the Bangladesh tour (which the senior Australian players don't want to go on) to get canned.

Yeah, Smith's 'no Bangladesh tour without signed MOU' seemed like code for "please don't make us go tour there".

 

[howardj]

Not sure whether that was sarcastic but it's widely known in Australian cricket circles that Bangladesh has for long not been high on the players' list of most desirable countries to tour

Our treatment of them, by both the players and CA, has been woeful.

 

[cnerd123]

So soft from the Australian's. Don't want to tour Bangladesh because it's uncomfortable/low profile/risk of getting humiliated.

They can't really be scared for their safety after how smooth and successful the England tour was.

This just reeks of being pompous and weak-willed. A real disgrace to everything that Australian cricket is supposed to stand for. This nation's cricketing culture was built on trying to prove to the English that these people who were discarded and looked down on by the upper classes were every bit as capable. This country's cricket was forged around playing hard, tough cricket. Making no excuses. Taking on and beating anyone, anywhere, any time.

And now look at them. What a disgrace.

 

[Starfighter]

You're all so cynical. Considering how bad a faith these negotiations started in it's surprising they're getting anywhere at all.

There's some conspiracy to call the Bangladesh tour off? Don't blame on malice what stupidity explains. You've got no clue.

 

[quincywagstaff]

You're all so cynical. Considering how bad a faith these negotiations started in it's surprising they're getting anywhere at all.

There's some conspiracy to call the Bangladesh tour off? Don't blame on malice what stupidity explains. You've got no clue.

There's no conspiracy, it's pretty much an open secret. From The Age early last month:

A decision to scrap the tour of Bangladesh over pay would be a monumental call but players aren't overly keen to go because of safety issues. However, England - flanked by maximum security - negotiated its way through there last year without drama.

Should Bangladesh be scrapped, there would be broadcast rights issues for CA - but nowhere near the drama which would be sparked should the subsequent one-day series in India be dumped. When the West Indies abandoned its Indian trip midway through the tour of 2014 over a pay fight, the BCCI reacted by demanding $42 million in damages.

The itinerary for the Indian tour has yet to be publicly released. Amid this ugly pay fight, CA also has its eye on a lucrative new Indian broadcast rights deal later this year.

"There is no way CA would want to upset the BCCI. That would be a disaster," one agent said on Saturday.

"This Indian series is the big one. Players and CA could live without the A tour and Bangladesh."

 

[cnerd123]

You're all so cynical. Considering how bad a faith these negotiations started in it's surprising they're getting anywhere at all.

There's some conspiracy to call the Bangladesh tour off? Don't blame on malice what stupidity explains. You've got no clue.

Not a conspiracy, just a very clear lack of urgency to resolve this before then because both parties clearly don't feel it matters.

If the Ashes were looming I'm sure they would have sorted this out. 100%. Because the Ashes matter and Bangladesh don't. And it's awful they think that and they deserve to be called out on it.

 

[Starfighter]

The fact is, for the people in the situation, some things are more important than others.

 

[Gnske]

Like lots and lots of money

 

[Starfighter]

Hence the protracted negotiations.

 

[Burgey]

Not a conspiracy, just a very clear lack of urgency to resolve this before then because both parties clearly don't feel it matters.

If the Ashes were looming I'm sure they would have sorted this out. 100%. Because the Ashes matter and Bangladesh don't. And it's awful they think that and they deserve to be called out on it.

It's true they don't care if the Bangladesh tour is cancelled. What they really want to do is knock the dispute over before the ODI tour of India, cos that's where the money is.

 

[vic_orthdox]

An example of grass roots expenditure from ACA - providing $10,000 per club to employ coaches at Premier cricket level, on the proviso that they were ex-members of the ACA.

All Australian premier clubs got access to at least one former state cricketer to help the current players at the level below state cricket, while retired players are able to get some money to subsidise their earning capacity after finishing a a cricketer.

This was during the last MOU - all players sacrificed money from their earnings in that period to go into a pool from which this was paid.

 

[vic_orthdox]

No chance of that. These guys are the most inaccessible sportsmen in the country.

Yet apparently they want to be 'partners' in the game.

This is rubbish. You're picking on the fifteen/twenty players to carry a burden that is shared between (lets say) 200 odd players in the NRL/AFL. There'd be 200 more known players in each sport than, say, Pete Handscomb.

The Australian players are trying to protect the state players, who carry this burden for them. They are the ones with an offseason and are based in one city to be able to make appearances, and they are the ones who have done so much to help publicise the BBL. Yet they are the ones that CA are looking to cap their earning potential the most over the next five years.

 

[vic_orthdox]

And with the NFL (not sure about MLB on NBA), they don't have the responsibility of running an entire sport at all levels

Hence why the NBA has a player share of 50%. So lets say you compare that to 30% (at best) for cricket, yet there's only 12% being spent on grassroots for a non-profit organisation.

 

[vic_orthdox]

I think Clarke is just showing us again that while he was a brilliant on field captain he really didn't inspire the other players.

https://twitter.com/ryanbroad/status/891594810074611712

A few Qlders in the likes too.