David Warner: Might not have a team for the Ashes
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In the wake of the ongoing contract dispute between Cricket Australia and the Australian players, David Warner has signaled a warning, saying that if the issue is not resolved quickly the best players will not be available for the Ashes series against England during the upcoming Australian summer.
Last week, James Sutherland, the head to Cricket Australia had written to Alistair Nicholson, the head of the Australian Cricketers Association saying that if Cricket Australia’s terms are not met and adhered to, the cricketers will be left without contracts after their current contracts expire on June 30th.
And though, this might come as news to many, David Warner is not one of them, the Australian vice-captain had anticipated this as reported by The Age on Monday. "We thought something along the lines of this might happen ... it's not come as a shock, but more the fact it has come so early,” said Warner.
Warner also stated, "If it gets to the extreme they might not have a team for the Ashes. I really hope they can come to an agreement... we don't really want to see this panning out like that where we don't have a team we don't have cricket in the Australian summer. It is up to CA to deal with the ACA [Australian Cricketers Association]. It's obviously in their hands."
More importantly, a number of the Australian players such as Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Shane Watson, and Mitchell Johnson took to social media to express their support to the ACA’s stand. And Warner joined his compatriots in saying that if their demands are not met, once out of contract, the players will turn to Twenty20 leagues around the world, such as the Caribbean Premier League and England's Twenty20 Blast in the short term to make up for their financial losses.
Warner, who is currently captaining the Sunrisers Hyderabad in the ongoing IPL, was quoted as saying, "We won't buckle at all, we are standing together and very strong, and as you can see from all the people that have spoken so far, we are all on the same wavelength ... we want a fair share and the revenue-sharing model is what we want, so we are going to stick together until we get that. We are not going to shy away; we are just going to stick together.
"For us as cricketers, if we don't have contracts we are going to have to find some cricket to play somewhere else because that's what we love doing and we're obviously going to look to maybe do something in the meantime otherwise we don't get paid," Warner said. "A few boys might go over to play the Caribbean Premier League and I think there could be some of the England Twenty20s on as well. We want to keep participating for our country as much as we can, but if we don't have a job we have to go and find some cricket elsewhere."
Last week Cricket Australia had offered 5 of its top players, including Warner, three-year contracts to skip the IPL. However, the southpaw rejected the offer saying, "It was quite laughable when I heard about it," he said. "It is fantastic with the security but you can't just try and stop people from playing other tournaments. We understand where they are coming from, they would like their best players and contracted players to have that rest.
"I see it as a great opportunity to play T20 cricket when they are scheduling T20 international cricket games when we are playing Test series - obviously there's too much cricket being played internationally. [The IPL] gives us a great window to get the T20 format in."
