Taylor confident 'Bangladesh tour' will go as planned
Former Australia captain Mark Taylor is confident that Australia’s scheduled tour of Bangladesh will go ahead as planned.
The expiration of previous Memorandum of Understanding on June 30 has seen over 200 professional cricketers fall out of contract and become unemployed.
The failure to reach agreement on a new MOU has led to speculation about Australia’s tour of Bangladesh being boycotted.
Australia cricketers have already boycotted the Australia A team’s tour of South Africa.
Also Read: Cricketers ‘wrong’ not to tour South Africa
Former Australia captain and current Cricket Australia board member Mark Taylor has sounded out a note of optimism while speaking at channel Nine’s Melbourne launch 2017 -18 season.
"We've got to get together, we've got to sort this out and hopefully sooner rather than later," said Taylor, whose current tenure on CA's Board began in 2013.
"But I'm very confident we'll have a side for the Ashes, and I'm also very confident we'll have a side to go to Bangladesh which is only in a month's time.
Read: Tamim leaves Essex due to 'personal reasons'
"There's obviously been a lot of conjecture and speculation about what's going on.
"There is stuff going on behind the scenes, there is discussions.
"Obviously, the stuff that people are reading and hearing is not great for the game.
Read: Starc signs with rival sponsor to Cricket Australia
"Not good for Cricket Australia, not great for the ACA either.
"There's ongoing discussions and that's about all I'm going to say, I don’t think people here (at the Channel Nine launch) need to know more than that.
"But I like to think I'm a positive person – we'll have Ashes cricket this year."
According to Cricket Australia website, ACA has offered an alternative proposal that retains the current revenue-share model but reduces the portion payable to players from around 25 per cent to 22.5 per cent, while broadening the definition of 'revenue' to increase the total player payment pool.
Bangladesh have moved ahead with their preperations for the upcoming Test series. The teams are scheduled to play the first Test on August 27.