A financially-battered Cricket Australia and the players' union have entered the most important chapter of their relationship since a bitter public pay dispute, with an April 30 contract deadline looming as the first test.
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CA chief executive Kevin Roberts told staff on Thursday the vast majority of them would be stood down for the rest of the financial year on 20 per cent pay.
Roberts, having been locked in deep discussions with his executive on Friday, finalised a skeleton staff by standing down what AAP believes to be approximately 80 per cent of a workforce that covers everything from community to elite cricket.
The governing body, which took the extreme measure in the hope of ensuring the worst economic damage from the COVID-19 pandemic is restricted to this financial year, remains hopeful the Twenty20 World Cup and a lucrative Test series against India can proceed next summer.
The T20 World Cup organising committee has been forced to make some redundancies, but for the most part its staff will continue to work after taking a pay cut of 25 per cent.
The lack of certainty and broader economic decline have created serious financial woes at CA, compounded by significant losses on the stock market that have hit its assets.
Roberts has made an effort to keep staff and players, who recently started their leave period, in the loop and must now turn his attention to the latter.
Players are covered by a separate Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), having fought hard in 2017 to maintain a revenue-sharing model.
The MoU dictates that CA must, by April 30, provide the Australian Cricketers' Association (ACA) with updated revenue estimates (which govern salary) and settle on a national contract list for 2020-21.
Both tasks will be difficult and CA has already pushed its contract announcement back to April 30 because of financial uncertainty.
The prospect of CA handing out million-dollar deals to the game's elite would not sit well with many stood-down staff dealing with financial stress and much uncertainty about what their world will look like come July 1.
Players have privately and publicly made it clear they will share the financial pain, but Roberts and ACA counterpart Alistair Nicholson are yet to agree on what that might entail.
"I haven't spoken to any of my teammates about it but we know the ACA and CA are talking," star allrounder Ashleigh Gardner said on Friday.
"All we know is Cricket Australia have to announce the next contract list by April 30, which isn't too far away. Once that happens, we'll know what's happening for the next season."
The relationship between CA and the ACA remains strong at this stage.
Roberts, who played a leading role in the 2017 pay dispute, has notably taken a far more collaborative approach since succeeding James Sutherland as CA's chief executive in 2018.
Australian Associated Press
