Australia's Test tour of Bangladesh in a mess
Dhaka: Australia's two-match Test tour of Bangladesh could be cancelled if the pay dispute between Cricket Australia (CA) and Australian Cricketers' Association (ACA) isn't resolved in the next fortnight.
CA chief executive James Sutherland and players' union counterpart ACA chief executive Alistair Nicholson are set to meet on Sunday, in a vital meeting that now stands between the game and utter crisis, as the cancellation of a Test tour would take the disaster to a new level.
Australia's cricketers have offered to commit around A$30 million to the game's lower levels and accept CA's revenue for the next five years to end the pay war, reports ESPN Cricinfo.
However the "terms sheet" brought to negotiations on Wednesday to provide a basis for the next collective agreement between the board and the ACA is now in doubt after CA on Thursday night sent through a revised Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) clause that removed all references to revenue sharing.
The talks between the CA and ACA started a week ago to avoid major disruption to the game, both in terms of commercial deals with sponsors and broadcasters, and also the Bangladesh tour in August.
Steve Smith-led Australian side is scheduled to arrive in Bangladesh on August 18 for a two-Test series in Dhaka and Chittagong, but the tour is still pending on the resolution of Australian cricket's pay dispute which started with the expiration of the most recent MoU on July 1.