Dunk disappointed over CA's remuneration proposal

Ben Dunk, the Australian Twenty20 batsman, believes domestic cricketers are feeling marginalised over Cricket Australia's (CA) remuneration proposal as the pay dispute engulfing Australian cricket continues to drag on.

CA and the Australian Cricketers' Association (ACA) are still at loggerheads with a resolution appearing unlikely before the current Memorandum of Understanding expires on June 30. The sticking point continues to revolve around CA's bid to overhaul the current revenue sharing model, where players receive about a quarter of total revenue.

Kevin Roberts, CA's chief negotiator, has been meeting with domestic players to spruik CA's pay plan, which guarantees set payments but also removes them from the 20-year-old revenue sharing model.

Dunk, who was the leading run scorer in last season's Big Bash League, said domestic players felt disrespected. "In the Big Bash there's guys being mic'd up talking their way through innings, wearing helmet cams, doing interviews on the boundary - just trying to make that Big Bash experience for the Australian public as good as it can be," Dunk told News Corp on Wednesday (June 21). "For us to then be excluded from the revenue share model really shows where we stand in Cricket Australia's eyes. I've found the whole process disappointing for all of my peers across the country.

"I think they (CA) have brought a real industrial outlook to the negotiations into a completely different field," he added.

If a deal can't be struck by June 30, there is the distinct possibility that out-of-contract players will look elsewhere to ply their trade, including playing in the new South African Twenty20 competition. Dunk said players felt like they were becoming disposal commodities. "It seems like CA are looking at them as everyday people being sent to do a job," he said. "If you need someone to dig a hole and they won't do it, then we'll find someone else to dig the hole. Guys with 20 Test match hundreds under their belt don't come along very often.

"To put the Australian cricket team at risk of not touring, or potentially losing those guys if they sign multi-year deals in franchise cricket, is very disappointing," he added.

Meanwhile, Paul Marsh, the former ACA chief executive, has accused CA of providing "factually incorrect" information. As the current head of the Australian Football League Players' Association, Marsh recently completed a revenue sharing deal for footballers for the next five years.

Under the new deal, AFL players will get 28 per cent of forecast revenue and 11.2 per cent of club revenue. Welcoming the AFL's deal, CA said it was 'more akin to a profit share'. "The AFL, with the agreement of its players, has rejected the funding model that currently exists within cricket," a CA spokesman said. "They understand that the fixed percentage model is outdated, and hinders the sport."

However, Marsh disputed CA's claims. "To say it is profit sharing is factually incorrect," he said. "Our deal is not that at all. It is revenue share. This is another in a long line of disrespectful and disingenuous actions by CA against the players.

"In nine days' time, cricket potentially will be a sport in a world of pain," he added.