Sydney, June 14 (ANI): Expressing sympathy for domestic players whose lives are on hold because of the ongoing pay dispute with Cricket Australia, Twenty20 captain George Bailey has said a cricketers' strike would be a disaster and a last resort.
Cricket Australia and the players' union will attempt to thrash out a resolution today as the one-day team departs for a tour of the British Isles.
Should the talks fail and the June 30 deadline pass, the union will consider "other options", including industrial action that could affect the World Twenty20, the Champions League and CA's important Big Bash League.ailey, a member of the Australian Cricketers' Association executive committee, is confident an agreement can be reached before the memorandum of understanding lapses, but he acknowledged the potential for serious consequences if progress is not made soon.
"The players still have full faith that the ACA and CA will be able to sort out the differences they have at the moment and come to a conclusion. Whenever there is talk of a strike, I think that is very much a last, last resort. It would be a disaster, I guess, if both the ACA and CA got to the stage where that had to occur," Bailey said.
His main concern, though, is for domestic cricketers who don't know whether they will have jobs in their states next summer, and can't talk to other teams while the dispute is unresolved because of a freeze imposed by CA, The Sydney Morning Herald reports.
"They are the guys you feel for most, guys at domestic level who are in limbo, not knowing where they are going to be playing, who they are going to be playing for."
Queensland, NSW and Western Australia have begun pre-season training in an atmosphere of uncertainty, while Big Bash teams cannot start recruiting until a new deal is in place. (ANI)