Warner criticises Cricket Australia for undermining Champions Trophy campaign

David Warner has questioned whether CA want to help Australia win the ICC Champions Trophy, after the board released a video aimed at persuading players to agree to giving up the revenue sharing model. CA and the Australian Cricketers Association, which represents the players, have so far struggled to make headway in negotiations to arrive at mutually-acceptable terms after the present MoU expires on June 30.

Australia play England at Edgbaston on Saturday knowing that defeat or another abandonment could end their Champions Trophy campaign. Warner, the Australia vice-captain, suggested that releasing the video - which features CA's chief negotiator Kevin Roberts claiming the players' demands took money out of junior cricket - just ahead of the match had done nothing to help them focus.

"If CA want to try and help us win I think they wouldn't be releasing videos like that," Warner said. "We have an important game coming up this week and that is our focus. The MoU can wait until after the game and the tournament."

The video, which features Roberts contradicting the ACA's claims about the costs of running the game, was posted on-line and emailed to professional players in Australia. While it may have been intended as clarification, it has been interpreted as an attempt to circumvent the players' body and was dismissed by Warner, on Twitter, as containing "half-truths."

But it is the timing of the video's release that irritated the players. The Champions Trophy ends in little more than a week and the players were hoping they would be given the space to concentrate on their cricket before being dragged into public negotiations.

"It [the timing] is disappointing," Warner said. "But I am not going to comment on what CA are trying to do. They obviously haven't thought about the process. We've given back almost 30 million to grassroots cricket. But at the end of the day we're here to win and if CA want to try and help us win I think they wouldn't be releasing videos like that.

"As we've said, we just want a fair share but leave it [the negotiations] until after the games. We have 100% support with the ACA to get to the table with CA. All the players are sticking together as one."

The revenue-sharing model - whereby players receive a fixed percentage of the gross income of Cricket Australia each year - has been in place since the ACA was founded in 1997. CA claim that model has served its purpose and they require more money to develop the game.

The players will be out of contract if an agreement is not reached by June 30, and Warner had said that if the players were not contracted, they would not be able to play for Australia. He even raised questions over whether CA would have a team for the Ashes, and stood by that stance when asked again about it during the Champions Trophy.