Australia's former wicket keeper, Ian Healy, has urged Australian cricketers not to go on strike over the recent ongoing pay dispute between Cricket Australia (CA) and its players.

Tensions between the players and the board were recently heightened when James Sutherland, CA chief executive, threatened players to accept the board's pay proposal or risk not being paid after the deadline of June 30.


That prompted David Warner, Australia's vice-captain, to say that Australia "might not have a team for the Ashes".

After two decades of the financial model, where cricketers have received about 25 per cent of total revenue, CA want to dismantle it in a bid for greater flexibility to distribute funds - much to the dismay of the cricketers.

"I think a potential strike over a model of payment is just not on. The game is wealthy. Everyone is doing well. I would not even be threatening to have a strike. We are not talking about massive issues here," said Ian Healy.

"Strike action should be avoided at all costs and I think the players will feel that as well. They don't want to strike," he added.

"Neither side are budging or really able to describe their arguments believably to the other. Cricket Australia are yet to really produce their justifications in public. I think they want to create hungry cricketers who value performance. They feel First-Class cricketers are earning sufficient money at the moment but they have not come out and said that."

Though Healy doesn't want Australian cricketers to go on a strike he suggests CA to follow a safe approach. "They don't want players who are not playing, who have been dropped or are on injury payments, earning millions of dollars. The ACA does not want to lose face by changing the model so Cricket Australia needs to think about how they can change the model without the players losing face."