Vice-captain David Warner has attacked Cricket Australia's handling of a pay dispute and once again raised the spectre of an Ashes series boycott by players later this year.
The feisty opener has not backed away from claims he made last month of a potential players' strike during the showpiece home series against England, starting in November.
CA has threatened not to pay contracted players beyond the June 30 expiry of their current financial deal if they do not accept a new offer.
But Warner has gone on the front foot, claiming the governing body had prosecuted its argument primarily through media briefings. "If we are unemployed, we have no contracts, we can't play," he said on Monday in England at the Champions Trophy. "We are pretty sure that they will come to an agreement. But, as you know, we are going to be unemployed come July 1. So we have to wait and see."
Warner said beyond "a couple of emails" CA management had not engaged with its contracted players. "It is only what we hear in the media and that's how CA have been driving it the whole way," he said. "They have been using the media as a voice and we get the message from there."
Warner again pledged his "full support" to fellow players and affirmed he is "100 per cent" behind the Australian Cricketers' Association (ACA). "They are doing a great job for us," he said of the players' union's efforts in the dispute."From a players' point of view, we are pretty vocal and upbeat."