Cape Town - Cricket South Africa (CSA) will have to get the South African Cricketers Association (SACA) on board before any changes to the current domestic cricket landscape can happen.
That is the view of SACA chief executive Tony Irish, who says that there has still been no proper engagement by CSA over the proposed changes.
CSA, as announced by CEO Thabang Moroe on Saturday, has through its board approved a movement to scrap the franchise system by 2020 and return to a more traditional landscape that would see 12 provinces compete.
SACA, Irish says, currently represents around 320 professional cricket players in the country.
In addition to the six franchises that operate in South Africa, there are a further 14 provincial sides that play in the CSA 3-Day Cup and CSA 1-Day Challenge.
The shift to 12 provincial sides would ultimately mean that that there are less spots available for professionally contracted players in South Africa, with the total number of professional/semi-professional teams going from 20 down to 12.
Even more concerning, Irish adds, is that because the revamp would be geared at cutting costs, the current franchise players would likely face pay cuts once they signed with one of the 12 proposed provincial teams.
CSA announced over the weekend that these plans would help to significantly lower the organisation's predicted loss over the next four years from R650 million to around R350 million.
SACA wants to see in detail how CSA arrived at those figures.
"We have expressed our concerns and have not heard anything back from CSA as yet," Irish told Sport24 on Tuesday.
"We need to feel comfortable that the finances and predictions are correct. That will determine how we respond to the proposed changes."
CSA and SACA entered into a revised Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in July last year which, according to Irish, means that no changes to existing player contracting models can go ahead without SACA agreeing to the change.
"We want to act responsibly from an informed basis but need CSA to respond to our queries in order to do this," Irish said.
"We know that there are financial challenges, but we need to be comfortable that the way it is being dealt with will actually ensure the long-term sustainability of cricket in the country and know that any changes we agree to going forward will contribute directly to that."
Another potential stumbling block for CSA could come in the form of the existing franchises themselves, given that they have their own sponsorship deals and stadium agreements in place, all of which have been secured independently.
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