Sacked Australian cricket coach Mickey Arthur has arrived at the Fair Work Commission for a second day of conciliation talks with Cricket Australia.
Arthur is seeking his job back or $4 million compensation after being dismissed two weeks before the start of the current Ashes series in England with two years left on his contract.
He was replaced by Darren Lehmann.
South African-born Arthur spent seven hours in talks last week without reaching an agreement, but remains hopeful of coming to a settlement on Wednesday.
“Today we’ll be trying our hardest to get this fixed on a fair and reasonable basis,” he told reporters.
“So hopefully that happens and hopefully (we’ll) get it done before the start of the big Test tomorrow.”
Asked if he was confident of Australia winning the Third Test at Old Trafford to draw back to 2-1 down in the five-Test series, a relaxed and jovial Arthur said: “Very”.
Should the two parties fail to resolve the matter on Wednesday, Arthur would likely be forced to wage battle in court, either the Supreme Court or Federal Court.
Cricket Australia would be reluctant for the matter to go public at the Federal Court, where witnesses would be called.
Damaging details of Arthur’s case – leaked to the media two weeks ago – have already revealed alleged division in the Australian team.
In the leaked documents, skipper Michael Clarke allegedly described vice-captain Shane Watson and his faction in the side as “a cancer”, with Arthur calling himself the “meat in the sandwich” between the conflicting camps.
Central to Arthur’s claims are allegations of discrimination on grounds of nationality, while he also noted a media conference comment by CA chief executive James Sutherland that, to some extent, he was a scapegoat for the team’s off-field discipline issues.
Arthur said this month he had little choice but to take legal action as he’d received nothing in writing from CA since his dismissal and no payment at all despite trying several times to make direct contact at a senior level.