Australia cricketers oppose CA XI in Matador Cup

Australia’s cricketers have stated their opposition to the use of Cricket Australia development teams in domestic competitions, heightening scrutiny around the CA XI to take part in this year’s Matador Cup in the second of a two-year trial.

As part of preliminary talks ahead of MOU negotiations due to begin between the Australian Cricketers Association and CA from October 1, player delegates met in Melbourne over the past two days to discuss a broad platform of positions from which to commence talks. Speaking for the players, the ACA executive member Simon Katich, said that the integrity of domestic tournaments as genuinely competitive environments – rather than purely developmental pathways – had been discussed at length.

“The delegates discussed a number of topics around the structure of domestic cricket, innovations coming into the game and any concerns people might have,” Katich told ESPNcricinfo. “The views were consistent in that what is important to the players is that the domestic structure is still seen as a tough competition rather than possibly a development pathway, given the Matador Cup has evolved where there was a CA XI last year and this year over a trial period of two years.

“Things like that can change the dynamic of the competition because it’s not actually a state team playing as such. Last year it was a younger team put together from guys who were contracted with different states and not getting a game for their own states. But the delegates were unanimous in the fact they don’t want the integrity of the Sheffield Shield or other domestic competitions to be changed because it is seen as a competition to develop players rather than having a tough competition to produce resilience and for guys to …

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