A new battleground has emerged in the pay war between Australia's cricketers and the sport's governing body, with players being warned the possibility of arbitration could impact on this summer's Ashes series.

Australian Cricketers Association chief Alistair Nicholson has told players in an email that arbitration would be costly and could take up to nine months to resolve an ongoing dispute which already has dragged on for nine months. The five-Test Ashes series is due to begin in Brisbane in late November.

This would put next month's tour of Bangladesh, a one-day series in India in October and the cash cow that is a home Ashes campaign in doubt – an issue that was revealed by Fairfax Media last weekend in another explosive email Nicholson had sent to players.

Tense negotiations over a new memorandum of understanding continued between CA and the ACA on Saturday, with both parties keen to avoid arbitration. Players have repeatedly had their calls for the less formal mediation rejected.

CA chief James Sutherland has given the ACA until close of business on Monday to agree to a new five-year deal otherwise he will go to the industrial umpire. However, the players are not compelled to attend such a hearing.

If the case did go to arbitration, CA says there would be a short-term deadline enforced to ensure the home summer was not impacted. CA would resume contracting and paying players as soon as the hearing started but players insist they want a heads of agreement for a new MOU before they would consider playing again.

"At this stage, we aren't going to speculate on details of arbitration other than to reiterate players would be recontracted at the commencement of arbitration and remain contracted until the final MOU can be signed," a CA spokesman said on Saturday.

"Our priority remains focused on the current intensive period of negotiation over the next few days in a final effort to reach sufficient agreement on the fundamental issues that would allow a HOA to be executed by early next week."

Sports lawyer Darren Kane had told Fairfax Media it could take weeks for an arbitrator, such as a retired Supreme Court judge, to get up to speed with the nuances of the expired MOU.

Publicly, at least, the cricketers insist they just want to "play" but have begun spruiking their rival deals to CA official commercial partners.

Nicholson on Saturday took umbrage at suggestions the players wanted to administer the game. He said they just wanted to be a partner of the sport, as they had been for 20 years since the original MOU was completed.

"One of the frustrations of this negotiation has been the misapprehension or perhaps mischaracterisation that players want to be administrators," he said.

"One of the frustrations of this negotiation has been the misapprehension or perhaps mischaracterisation that players want to be administrators."

- ACA chief Alistair Nicholson

"It's just not true. The players want to play. But it's also true they have a voice and it's right they are heard. To be consulted – yes. To be managers – absolutely not.

"We have conveyed this message ad nauseam to CA. It seems to be a truth inconvenient to pre-conceptions about the players and the ACA. And it's clearly been a major stumbling block to progress over the last year."

About 230 players have been unemployed since July 1 when the former MOU expired. There are about 70 state-based players who have multi-year contracts who continue to be paid.

CA says players can expect to share in $450 million over the next five years. Players are after about $480 million depending on projections, for there will be new broadcast rights agreements brokered over the next year.

Players say they had been close to agreeing to a modernised hybrid revenue system. They had been paid from gross revenues. CA wanted that to change to a set pool of money with a share only in surplus revenue.

Just how much money should be redirected to grassroots cricket has also become a battleground. Players say they are willing to tip in $30 million of their own money into development and club cricket, sparking claims this is an area of the sport they should not worry about, for it falls under the jurisdiction of the governing body.

CA has so far saved $2.4 million in wages since July 1, with this money to go to grassroots funding. That the players are free agents has meant they can sign with rival CA sponsors. Fast bowler Mitchell Starc is one of the unemployed Test stars, and took to social media on Friday to declare he was "absolutely thrilled" with his sponsorship with the Parramatta dealer of car maker Audi.

CA has included car company Toyota among its protected sponsors for the 2017-18 season, and had cautioned players before July 1 that they jeopardised their future CA contracts should they sign with rival sponsors.

Australia's Test squad is due to go into camp on August 11 ahead of the Test tour of Bangladesh. If there is no heads of agreement done by then, the tour appears certain to be scrapped, following the decision to abort the Australia A tour of South Africa earlier this month.

"At any rate, what matters now is that talks do progress. That is my immediate and only focus," Nicholson said.

"The instructions from the players to the ACA could not be clearer: we want to play the game we love and we want a fair deal for men, for women and for grassroots cricket. The players are more resolute than ever. A terrific group of young men and women in full support of each another."