Heath Streak was sacked as Zimbabwe captain

The move follows a warning from the International Cricket Council, who gave the two sides a 14-day deadline from 30 June to agree a way forward.

Lawyer Chris Venturas, who represents the players, said the outcome of the arbitration process would be binding.

"This has been a long drawn out, stressful, volatile and unproductive business," he commented.

The dispute began when Heath Streak was sacked as national team captain.

Several weeks of claim and counter-claim followed and Streak and the rest of the group boycotted home series against Sri Lanka and Australia.

We have been working on this for six weeks ZCU chairman Peter Chingoka

Zimbabwe were forced to field an inexperienced side, prompting the ICC to cancel the Tests against Australia to protect the game's "integrity".

It led to a decision, taken at Lord's last week, that Zimbabwe should not play Tests for the rest of 2004.

The ICC also set the deadline for an agreement on a "process or mechanism" intended to resolve the dispute, backed up by a threat of intervention.

The ZCU said the ICC could not impose a solution on them but the game's world governing body is confident they have the legal authority to do so if necessary.

ICC president Ehsan Mani said: "The ZCU is firmly of the view that this system has no jurisdiction but the ICC's legal advice is clear in saying that it does."

Streak, meanwhile, is now playing county cricket in England for Warwickshire.

The other rebels, with the expection of Andy Blignaut, have formed a team called the Red Lions and will play the first of six one-day matches in England on 14 July.