Australia's cricketers will convene at a Sydney hotel on Sunday in one of the most extraordinary assemblies of players in years as Cricket Australia faces the prospect of watching their stars' image rights being sold offshore next month.
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With talks having broken down, only the most optimistic of observers believe there is any chance a new pay deal, or even an agreement in principle, will be struck between CA and the Australian Cricketers' Association by Friday's deadline and suitors in India and England are ready to pounce on the looming lockout.
The likes of David Warner, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc and Glenn Maxwell are huge names on the subcontinent and with CA no longer controlling their intellectual property rights after their contracts expire this week and they are effectively rendered unemployed, the game's escalating industrial crisis could be seized upon by opportunistic foreign entities.
The players' union, which has set up a division called The Cricketers' Brand to source revenue for players beyond July 1 in the event of no new deal, revealed to Fairfax Media on Wednesday that they had had inquiries from India about sponsoring a collective of Australia's most high-profile players should the pay dispute not be resolved by Friday.
"The negotiations have obviously created interest overseas and there has been genuine interest from the Indian market in regards to players' IP and taking that offshore," said Tim Cruickshank, the former NSW batsman and ACA commercial manager who is heading The Cricketers' Brand.
How aggressively to push ahead with such potential commercial tie-ups here and abroad will be one of the main agenda items at a post-deadline player summit scheduled for the Hilton hotel in central Sydney on Sunday.
In an email sent by CA team performance chief Pat Howard on Wednesday night, which state high performance managers forwarded to players, he cautioned against linking with unapproved sponsors.
"All players will be provided with a list of protected sponsors for 2017/18," Howard wrote.
"Any player entering into unapproved endorsements during any uncontracted period puts at risk future endorsement arrangements with CA, State and W/BBL partners and puts you at risk of not being able to enter into a contract for the upcoming season with CA, the State or W/BBL Team."