Australian cricketers' strike prospects fade

The prospects of Australia's cricketers going on strike in England have eased after negotiations between the players and Cricket Australia over their ongoing pay dispute seemed to be going on right direction.

Australian Cricketers' Association boss Paul Marsh said after a meeting with Cricket Australia officials that both parties were closer to a resolution following the discussions.

"We had a productive meeting, we made a lot of progress, but we're at a point now where our respective boards need to consider where we're at," Marsh was quoted as saying by Sydney Morning Herald.

Asked about the threat by the players to go on strike if an agreement could not be reached before the June 30 deadline,

Marsh said, "(I) don't want to go down that path. Our priority is to try and get a deal done before June 30."

The meeting came as captain Michael Clarke declared that the last thing any player wanted to do was strike.

"Hopefully I don't have to worry about it, hopefully it'll get sorted before then," he said before boarding a flight to London for Australia's ODI tour of Britain.

CA is pushing for a change to the revenue pool from which the players currently receive 26 percent and want a new performance-based pay deal in line with recommendations from last year's sweeping Argus review into the Australian game.

A CA spokesman said that the current contracting model, where deals are awarded to whom the selectors deem are the 25 best players in the country, was based on "peer relativity".

"The simple way of explaining that is the Argus committee believes the players should be well paid, but they should be paid more, for example, if they win a series 5-0 than if they lost a series 0-5," the spokesman said.

The British tour will be the last chance Australia have of playing in England at international level before next year's Ashes series.

The Australians play their first international, against Ireland in Belfast, next Saturday. The five-game series against England starts on June 29 at Lord's.