Australian cricketers threaten to strike, boycott England ODI series

Melbourne, Jun 2 (ANI): Australian cricketers are threatening to strike less than a month before their one-day series in England if a contract is not signed by the end of the month.

Cricket Australia is playing hardball in negotiations and has frozen all state and Big Bash contract talks under the threat of a 50,000 dollars fine until the new agreement is in place.

Australian Cricketers Association head Paul Marsh confirmed that there were contingency plans should the two sides fail to agree before July 1.

The players are said to have examined a boycott of next month's one-day tour of England or the Twenty20 world championships.

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, Fox Sports reports.

Players and state administrators have both raised the possibility of a tour boycott, as frustrations rise over a situation in which players are unsure which state they will be training with in four weeks time and how much they will be paid.

Marsh said the players 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. We are looking at all of our different options," he said. (ANI)