Australia's women cricketers are refusing to let the sport's pay war on the other side of the world distract their bid for a seventh World Cup, although wicketkeeper Alyssa Healy admits the impasse in negotiations is becoming frustrating ahead of Sunday's blockbuster against England.
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Female cricketers have sided with their male counterparts in rejecting Cricket Australia's proposed changes to the revenue-share pay model, which expired on June 30, and have not been involved in negotiations during the crisis since flying to England last month.
The 15 players representing Australia have resolved not to discuss the issue until their campaign for back-to-back World Cup titles concludes, but Healy admitted it was impossible to ignore the situation entirely.
"We're the only 15 employed cricketers in the country at the minute; we're over here and we're four from four in a World Cup," Healy said.
"It's a little bit frustrating to read my Twitter feed each morning. We're going really well and we're just focusing on that and hopefully the MOU [memorandum of understanding] negotiations will get sorted back home and we can come back home with a trophy and hopefully a pay slip in August.
"The ACA and Cricket Australia have both left us alone as well and just made sure we're focusing on the World Cup and doing the best we can.
"Once it's all over and we get back to Australia we'll catch up on what we've missed and what needs to be done going forward."
At the centre of Australia's World Cup campaign is a players' document outlining the squad's goals in England, drawn up at a private gathering held before flying to England where it was decided discussions on the pay dispute would be shelved until after the tournament.
Coaching staff were not present at the meeting.
"It was just us, a group of 15, we sat down together and came up with some values and some actions that we wanted to take in this World Cup and how we were going to deal with external pressure and internal pressure as well," Healy said.
"It was nice to be able to sit down as a group a couple of times before we came away and nut some of that stuff out. We're really living that at the moment and it's really exciting.
"That's all I can give you, it's a bit secret. It's pretty cool that we can sit down and create something really special like that and hopefully that continues forward."
Australia hope to extend their lead atop the World Cup standings in Bristol on Sunday against the home side, which comes into the game off a thumping win over South Africa.
It will be the first one-day international between Australia and England in almost two years.
"It's going to be a really tough game – playing England on their home soil is never easy – but I think we've definitely got the squad here that can take the points," Healy said.
"They've been playing really well, they've put two scores of 370 on the board in the tournament already. It's going to be a real test for our bowling unit, but I've no doubt that come Sunday we'll be raring to go.
"We can improve a little bit in the field a little bit more and that's a little bit scary as to where we can get to."
