Battlelines harden in board v player row

The growing dispute between Cricket Australia and the country's players escalated over the weekend with a report claiming that the cricketers are angry at what they see as a deliberate leak of information aimed at undermining their position.

A report in The Sunday Age said that Tim May, the Australian Cricketers Association's chief executive, had admitted that the players had reacted badly to the revelation last week of details relating to contracts, match payments and sponsorship income. They were, he added, especially uneasy of the timing of the leak and its source, given that the board was due to present a proposal to the ACA. "The players are suspicious about where the disclosure of individual contracts came from," he said, "and where the figures on sponsorship deals came from."

The players are concerned that Cricket Australia wants to change the way their pay is calculated. In 1997, similar negotiations nearly brought a players' strike. At the moment, all Australian players, whether they represent state sides or the Test team, are paid from a 25% pool of Cricket Australia's revenue. By way of comparison, their rugby counterparts share a 30% pool of their board's revenue.

Cricket Australia proposed on Friday that the players should receive a fixed amount rather than a percentage. The players want a continuation of the revenue-share system, because it makes them feel like shareholders rather than merely employees of the board, but CA says that it cannot afford to continue that arrangement.

Another contentious issue is that of the number of centrally-contracted players. The Herald Sun cited five such players - Stuart Clark, Ashley Noffke, Michael Hussey, Wade Seccombe and Matthew Elliott - who received a total of Aus$640,000 in seasons they never played a Test or one-day international.

May is expected to put the players' position to the board on Tuesday.