Australian cricket officials face an uphill battle to convince players to jettison a revenue-sharing model that has underpinned the game's development for 20 years, according to former cricketers' boss Tim May.
May brokered a the landmark deal in 1997 as the inaugural chief executive of the Australian Cricketers' Association (ACA).
The former Test spinner played a leading role in landing the model that has made the country's cricketers among the highest paid in the world.
Cricket Australia now says the model, which has long allocated players about a quarter of total revenues, is obsolete.
The dispute has become increasingly bitter, and CA chief executive James Sutherland raised the stakes at the weekend by declaring players would not be offered alternative contracts if they failed to reach a deal by the July deadline.
"With six weeks to go before June 30, I think it's inflammatory - and makes the players bind together more - for the CEO to come out and say 'these are the terms that we are offering ... either accept or be unemployed,'" May told Reuters in an interview from his home in Austin, Texas.
"An ultimatum like that would suggest that CA don't want to get back to the negotiating table and negotiate this stuff. I find that puzzling.
"I think the cricketing community would be questioning their desire to get a deal done."
CA has claimed its offer will address "under-investment" at grass roots level, but May questioned how that concern could not be addressed within a revenue-sharing model.
"It may be that they could pay the players a percentage point less or exclude some revenue flows, and they can still do that and have the benefits of 'variable-ising' expenses," the 55-year-old said.
"The ACA probably aren't moving because they don't understand the rationale of what CA are trying to put before them.
"I don't think it's easy for anyone to understand what CA are talking about unless they disclose various figures and projections."
May conceded that industrial action would be damaging for all parties in the eyes of the Australian public but he was adamant that players were not being greedy.
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