03 June,2012 05:00 AM IST | | AFP
Australia's cricketers may go on strike ahead of next month's one-day tour of England over performance-related pay issues, reports said on Saturday.
Australian Cricketers Association (ACA) head Paul Marsh said there were contingency plans should a resolution not be agreed with Cricket Australia before July 1.
The Australian newspaper said players have examined a boycott of next month's one-day tour of England or the Twenty20 World Cup in Sri Lanka in September-October.
"Relationships between players and management are heated and threatening to become as ugly as the stand-off surrounding the first player contract negotiations during Mark Taylor's captaincy (1994-1999)," the paper said.
"Cricket Australia is playing hardball in negotiations and has frozen all state and Big Bash (domestic T20) contract talks under the threat of a Aus$50,000 ($48,400) fine until the new agreement is in place."
Marsh told the newspaper his members were preparing for the possibility of an industrial stand-off if there was no contract in place before the current one ends. "There's only 29 days of negotiations left to run, so of course we are preparing for the eventuality of not having a deal in place before the end of July," Marsh told The Australian.