During the Boxing Day Test last week, as Australia were in the midst of thrashing the West Indies, another meeting of adversaries was taking place behind the scenes.

On either side of the table were Pat Howard, Cricket Australia's team performance manager, and the Australian Cricketers' Association chief executive, Alastair Nicholson. At issue was a subject that has driven the two parties further apart during the past eight months than would ordinarily be the case with the natural friction that exists between employer and union. Women's pay.

An end to the stalemate, however, might just be around the corner after the meeting in Melbourne. Howard predicts that as a result Australia's contracted female players will be fully professional by the start of next summer, and that state players will be semi-professional in the same time frame. He will not put an exact figure on the salary range that will be available to the Ashes-winning Southern Stars but if the top Australian players are on six-figure contracts for the first time it will be a landmark moment for cricket and women's sport in general in Australia.

"I'd be very surprised if that doesn't happen," Howard said on Monday when asked whether Australia's women would be fully professional by next summer. "There's lots of ways to make this work and we're just going through the finer detail of making it work but for [season] 2016/17 I expect incremental growth to get to a point where it's a pretty good outcome for them. I do think the Cricket Australia-contracted girls should be full-time players. We've got to settle on a number between the group of us. I was pleasantly surprised by the first meeting."