They will crack before the India tour. That's Cricket Australia's (CA) view of the 230 unemployed cricketers who this week forced the cancellation of an Australia A tour to South Africa.

Don't bet on it.

Australia was pencilled in for a five-match ODI series and one-off Twenty20 game on the road against India in October, but that tour has yet to be rubber-stamped amid the turmoil in Australian cricket.

The cricketers are digging in. Unless a new revenue-share deal is done with CA, there will be no Australian player touring India this summer.

There is another proviso: the Australian players could negotiate their own tour although that is politically fraught and remains unlikely. But not impossible.

This situation has now become a contest in itself: professional competitors, who are trained to find ways to win, have locked horns with administrators, who want to earn maximum revenue for minimum outlay.

Respected cricket commentator, journalist and author Mike Coward told The Ticket the ongoing standoff had seismic ramifications.

"Another revolution is in the wings," he said, referring to cricket's World Series split back in the 1970s.

Dates and venues have not been confirmed yet for the October India v Australia ODI and T20 series. ( AAP: Dean Lewins )

Speaking to 7.30 this week, Catherine McGregor said unemployment would crack the cricketers' resolve. Head office can withstand the pressure since they are still receiving their pay cheques.

But what if the money runs out?

The cancellation of an Australian tour to India in October would cost CA up to $60 million with ramifications for broadcast deals in both India and Australia.

It would also negatively impact on current negotiations for future broadcast deals.

After much criticism, CA chief executive James Sutherland has now entered the talks with the Australian Cricketers Association (ACA) that had, until recently, been handled by CA's executive general manager, Kevin Roberts.

However, as one insider put it, this week was, "was one step forward and three steps back".

Internationally, support appears to be swinging behind the players.

South African Broadcasting Corporation deputy sports editor Janet Whitton says while cricket's officials were staying out of the debate, there was no shortage of discussion.

"There seems to be a lot of sympathy with the Australian players in this argument," she said.

Former England captain Michael Vaughan warned CA ignored the views of the players at its own peril.

"I just think we're going through an era now that administrators, boards, around the world have got to accept that there's more money coming into the game," he said.

"I'm afraid the product of the game is about the players out on the pitch and those players deserve to be rewarded."

Globally, there is one person who has had more to do with resolving player disputes than any other — the president of the World Players' Association representing 85,000 players through 100 associations in 60 countries, including Australia and the ACA.

In the past 40 years, Don Fehr has been involved in strikes, lockouts and other disputes in Major League Baseball (MLB) and the National Hockey League (NHL).

CA chief James Sutherland (R) has finally entered into talks with the ACA. ( AP )

Speaking exclusively to The Ticket, he spelled out why the players had the upper hand in the current cricket standoff.

"In most cases for most workers on traditional union jobs, there are a whole lot of people that have the skills necessary to do their job and therefore there is, or could be, an oversupply … it tends to have a downward pushing effect on prices, in this case on wages," he said.

"In professional sports its entirely different, for two reasons.

"The number of individuals who have the capability and the guts and the willingness to work hard in a competitive spirit, who actually perform at this level is vanishingly small.

"The second is you don't have a major league or world class product without those and that gives the individuals —certainly individually, but far more importantly as a group — considerably more bargaining power than most employees have enjoyed in most industries."

The stance being taken by Cricket Australia currently is no different to that taken by professional sports in the United States.

"Management, ownership, makes a simple calculation: 'Am I more likely to get lower prices if I isolate the individuals and negotiate one on one, especially if they are young and not financially sophisticated, or is it more beneficial for me if I negotiate with the union which has professional staff, who know what they're doing, where the players can bargain together and make the bargaining power more equal'," Mr Fehr said.

"If you're management, your desire is to have it as unequal as possible and in your favour so, of course, you want to bargain one on one."

Without the players, there is no product for Cricket Australia to sell. ( AP: Rui Vieira )

CA said operating expenses these days were far higher which was why they needed greater control over the sport's revenue. CA currently has as many employees as un-contracted players.

Mr Fehr says in any major sport, players are between 95 to 98 per cent of key employees. They are the only people that fans pay to watch.

"Nobody goes to watch the referee, nobody goes to watch the trainer on the sideline and nobody, for sure, goes to watch anybody who's wearing a suit and tie," he said.

"They only go to watch the athletes and this is an industry in which you don't have a lot of the costs that you might otherwise have … the game itself is the product."

There's a note of caution to sports administrators gleaned from four decades of successfully negotiating outcomes for players.

"I don't know of any [major] sport in the developed world which has had a permanent disaffection or loss of fans as a result of a stoppage," Mr Fehr said.

"Now why is that important? Because it means that people are more willing to run the risk of a stoppage."

In other industries the product can be found elsewhere.

"It's not true in sports," Mr Fehr says, "There's nowhere else to go."

As hard as it might try, CA will not be able to find another cricket team. It's time to negotiate with the only one it has.