Australia’s senior players have voted to boycott next month’s tour of Bangladesh unless their long-running pay dispute with Cricket Australia (CA) is settled before they leave, reports said Monday.
Captain Steve Smith and vice-captain David Warner attended an undisclosed meeting with Australian Cricketers’ Association (ACA) chief executive Alastair Nicholson to consider their options after a breakdown in the talks with CA last week.
The Australian newspaper said the players discussed a range of options, including going ahead with the Bangladesh tour under a special contractual arrangement.
But they resolved to stand by the resolutions reached at a previous meeting and refuse to take part in any tours unless there is a new memorandum of understanding in place.
The players are entering their fourth week of unemployment since the failure to reach a new agreement on pay at the end of June.
The squad voted to attend the training camp in Darwin on August 10 but will not leave for Bangladesh a week later unless an agreement is reached, the newspaper said.
The first match of the two-Test series was due to start 10 days later.
The Australia A squad went through a similar process before abandoning the tour to South Africa earlier this month.
The dispute is over CA’s refusal to renew a revenue-sharing arrangement which has been part of all deals over the past two decades.
Reports said the ACA was close to a deal with CA last week. Players proposed they retain the revenue-sharing model but sacrifice up to Aus$30 million ($24 million) of their pay to grassroots cricket.
But CA would not offer a revenue-sharing deal.
The players expressed disappointment at the latest developments in the protracted dispute, which threatens the showpiece Ashes home series against England later this year.
