Contract set to expire between Australian Cricketers' Association and Cricket Australia

Melbourne: A last-minute settlement that could prevent hundreds of Australian cricketers from becoming unemployed - and potentially disrupt the Ashes later this year - appeared to have faded on Friday.

A Memorandum of Understanding between Cricket Australia and the Australian Cricketers' Association (ACA) was set to expire at midnight Friday night.

The two parties remained deadlocked over the issue of revenue sharing and negotiations have stalled for months. There were no talks scheduled between the parties.

The next major development could occur on Sunday, when the ACA board and executive were set to hold a Sydney meeting and players planned to discuss their next steps in the stalemate.

The players' union wants Cricket Australia chief executive James Sutherland to enter emergency mediation and take charge of the dispute. Sutherland was back in his Melbourne office on Friday, having recently returned from a trip to England for International Cricket Council meetings.

Cricket Australia sent a new offer to ACA chief executive Alistair Nicholson last week, but the union rejected the offer on the same day it was submitted.

On Friday, Cricket Australia said in a statement that it was "disappointed by the ACA's unwillingness to consider the sensible and necessary change CA has proposed to the fixed share of revenue player payments model."

"The model was adopted 20 years ago to address the underpayment of players. The game has changed fundamentally since then: players are now justifiably well rewarded and the modern challenge is the chronic under-funding of the grassroots of the game, particularly junior cricket."

Former test opener Simon Katich, a player liaison manager with the union, said he realized the players risk alienating the public by not accepting contract offers.

"It's a shame it has to go down that path because the players are Cricket Australia's biggest assets," Katich told Fox Sports. "It's a shame they are putting them in this position. What sort of employer does that to their employees?"

If the two parties are unable to agree on a new deal, more than 200 cricketers will technically be out of work on Saturday.

The Ashes series will be at threat if the situation is not resolved before November, a point that vice-captain David Warner has made in several interviews recently. The five-test series against England is scheduled to begin Nov. 23 in Brisbane.

Cricket Australia has paid the women's World Cup squad in advance for the ongoing tournament in England. It means the most pressing series at risk is next month's Australia A tour of South Africa, with players set to assemble in Brisbane for training on Monday.