Fleming should take over cricket pay negotiations - Crowe
From Stuff, 7 November 2002

New Zealand batting great Martin Crowe wants test captain Stephen Fleming to take over negotiations and sack current players' representatives Rob Nichol and Heath Mills to resolve the crippling cricket pay dispute.

Crowe said Nichol, Mills and recently retired Dion Nash had made a meal of the Cricket Players' Association (CPA) negotiations with New Zealand Cricket in the leadup to the current impasse.

He said Fleming and star allrounder Chris Cairns must take the lead because they were more in touch with the situation.

"They've got to send in Stephen Fleming and Chris Cairns to replace Rob Nichol and Heath Mills at the negotiation table," Crowe told Radio Sport today.

"Then NZC could trust that a resolution would be made by the end of November. Then NZC would believe the CPA had true representation and the best interest of cricket at heart.

"Mills and Nichol have to step aside. They've failed, they don't have the credibility."

Neither have played first-class cricket but were enlisted by Nash for the CPA during his playing days.

Fleming has consistently refused to speak on the issue and Crowe said it was hugely damaging that Fleming and NZC chief executive Martin Snedden weren't talking.

"They have not spoken for four months, can you believe that? It's staggering, and I know Martin Snedden's frustrated because he hasn't been allowed to.

"Stephen needs to be a mediator. You can't be that close to the players that you cannot be able to lead them and show them the right way.

"At the same time you have a loyalty to New Zealand Cricket. I believe he's the missing link in all this."

Crowe said he had been losing sleep over the issue. He had an interest as head of Sky television's cricket coverage, a friend of Snedden and of several of the current Black Caps players.

He said Nash's presence had also been unhelpful.

"In my opinion the CPA's presentation of the players' case is flawed," Crowe said.

"I seriously question the credibility of Nichol and Mills. I seriously question the rationale of Dion Nash. He's clearly the driving force behind them but he just seems a little bit out of touch.

"I seriously question their decision to withdraw their services while they're in negotiations with NZC."

Nash came out firing this week, saying the pay impasse had been brewing for years and NZC had it coming for their attitude to some players.

Crowe said the Australian example should be followed, where the players never actually withdrew their services. In their pay dispute several years ago, former test player Tim May was the driving force and he enlisted top international negotiators.

The New Zealand CPA had been driven by Nash and his good friend Mills, brother of Black Caps paceman Kyle Mills.

Crowe said they needed a negotiator so they enlisted Nichol from "down the road" from a similar role with New Zealand rugby.

"Tim May is intelligent, very streetsmart, he has credibility and he's a great rep for the players," Crowe said, adding May could even be brought in to help with the current crisis.

Crowe believed though there was room for the CPA, for which he and Snedden had been prime movers in the late 1980s.

But he said the current crisis had got way out of hand. The CPA on Tuesday rejected NZC's increased pay offer of $5 million, and Snedden reacted by suspending negotiations.

"It's going to get worse. It's the nastiest thing I've seen in cricket," Crowe said.

"I'm worried sick, I'm losing sleep about it, and I just hope sanity prevails."

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