CSA commits to revenue-share model

Cricket South Africa has committed to maintaining a revenue-share model with its players as it enters negotiations over a new memorandum of understanding with the South African Cricketers' Association.

The current MoU, which has been in place since 2014, expires at the end of April and is redrafted every four years and has always included a revenue-share model But, in December last year, acting CEO Thabang Moroe and president Chris Nenzani told journalists they might consider rethinking the structure of their player contracts.

At the time, Moroe made several suggestions of how CSA could shake up contracts including awarding them across different formats and mentioned that the revenue-sharing model would be re-examined. However, at a board meeting on Saturday, CSA backtracked from that and resolved to keep the financial model, which will go some way to easing player concerns over their financial futures.

"We remain committed to the revenue share model," CSA president Nenzani said. "We are a big employer with many constituencies and have sought over the past few months to engage with them with a view to preparing for the negotiations with SACA. The collective agreement ends in April this year. We will be ready to commence negotiations in advance of that date."

However, that does not mean the situation between CSA and the players has been completely resolved. ESPNcricinfo understands that CSA have yet to hold an official meeting with SACA over the status of the MoU and have delayed talks by at least a month. Usually, meetings between CSA and SACA take place in the first week of February but, to date, there has been no sit-down between parties.

A concern for SACA is that the window for contracting franchise players opened on March 1 and will close at the end of April and a delay in talks could hamper the process of completing these contracts. Franchise players were believed to be so unhappy with the lack of clarity over the MoU that they were considering boycotting some parts of the first-class competition, which is in its final three rounds, unless some progress was made.

CSA has appointed a four-man task team to deal with the negotiations for the MoU. Franchise CEOs Jacques Faul (Titans), Nabeal Dean (Cobras), Greg Fredericks (Lions) and provincial CEO Thando Booi (Border) will look into how a collective agreement with SACA can be reached.