Australian Cricketers' Association boss Alistair Nicholson is refusing to back down from his position in the latest round of negotiations with Cricket Australia (CA) over a new pay deal.
There are now only six weeks to go until the current memorandum of understanding (MOU) expires.
Nicholson is now calling on third-party mediators to help settle the dispute, with both sides unwilling to budge.
"We haven't been able to progress the fundamental issue which is around the revenue-sharing model," Nicholson said.
"With June 30 coming, we think it's important that we go to mediation."
CA made an offer in March, which it spruiked heavily as a win for the game's leading female players, who would receive a record pay rise.
It proposed the average pay of Australia's international women cricketers would rise from $79,000 to $179,000 as of July 1, while the average remuneration of state cricketers would more than double to $52,000.
Male player payments would also increase significantly, CA proposed, with average international men's payments rising by 25 per cent by 2021/22, and domestic payments suggested to increase by 18 per cent in that same period.
The proposal was rejected and the Players' Association tabled a counter offer, which also fell on deaf ears.
Speaking on the Nine Network on Sunday, Cricket Australia board member and former Australian captain Mark Taylor voiced his opinion that the Players' Association was not negotiating in good faith.
"I am not surprised James has done what he's done. Things have not been going anywhere for months now," Taylor said.
"Cricket Australia feels the ACA aren't negotiating at all.
"Cricket Australia wants to change the MOU, we want to get away from what they call the revenue-sharing model."
Many players have openly expressed their desire to maintain the current model, which sees players receive a fixed share of Cricket Australia's overall revenue.
Taylor suggested the Players' Association's strategy was established well before they knew what Cricket Australia was even going to offer.
"I had players say to me in January of this year that we could well be on strike by July. This is well before this MOU was even presented," Taylor said.
"The costs of revenue are going up in sport all the time and every sport will say that."
Perhaps in this dispute, cricket is a victim of its own success.
The sport's revenue over the last four years has tripled. In 2016 it listed its operating income at over $333 million. This has been fuelled in part, by the success of the Big Bash.
Nicholson stopped short of predicting a player strike, but says right now there is still a lot of uncertainty surrounding the deal.
"The players are behind us and our position. If we get to June 30 and we haven't got to where we need to be, then we will work through that as a playing group," he said.
Ironically, if both parties fail to come to terms it will be the game as a whole that loses
