Steve Smith hardens stance, says no Bangladesh tour without new pay deal

Australian players will not travel to Bangladesh for a two-test tour starting this month until the pay dispute between them and the sport’s national governing body is resolved, captain Steve Smith said on Tuesday.

The Australian Cricketers’ Association (ACA) and Cricket Australia’s (CA) have failed to resolve a long-running pay dispute that has left around 230 players effectively unemployed after the previous five-year agreement expired in June. The Australia A team boycotted their South Africa tour in July after a new Memorandum of Understanding could not be agreed and Smith says the senior team will skip the Bangladesh tour, which is scheduled to start on Aug. 27. “I’d like to, but as we’ve said for a long time we need to get the deal done first,” Smith told Fox Sports.

“I don’t think it would be fair for us to go away after the (Australia) A guys were very strong on not going away on their tour, for us to then go away I don’t think that’s fair. “CA know this, they’ve been told this. I told (CA’s Executive General Manager Team Performance) Pat Howard personally that this was how things were going to be if there wasn’t a deal done.” …read more