Big Bash League: Pat Cummins, Steve Smith may have to play interstate to help revive competition

Amid new threats to the existence of the Big Bash League, Cricket Australia have revealed a bold vision to get their superstars on the field - but whether it gets their support is another thing entirely.

Superstars like Pat Cummins and Steve Smith could be forced out of their home states in a bid to get a fresh pulse pumping in the Big Bash League.

If the besieged BBL can solve its first problem of finally getting the big names to play in the tournament, the next hurdle will be how do you distribute the marquee stars evenly across all eight teams?

News Corp understands cricket powerbrokers want Australia’s top international players to enter a national draft from 2024 to spread them evenly across all eight teams.

Watch The 2022 Indian Premier League on Kayo. Every Match Live & On-Demand. New to Kayo? Try 14-days free now >

Pat Cummins in one of his (very) few appaearances with Sydney Thunder.

Under the bold vision – which would break up the Sydney powerbase of the Test side – Mitchell Starc could, for instance, be conscripted to Hobart, Cummins to Brisbane and Smith to Perth.

Being told to pack your bags and go play in a different city when you’ve spent the year travelling around the world would likely raise the ire of Test stars … but it’s starting to reach desperation stakes for BBL.

Something has to give.

With just two summers left to save the competition from a TV rights disaster, Cricket Australia is in a race against time and the problems are only mounting. South Africa has announced a new cashed-up T20 franchise league to go head-to-head with the BBL in January and compete for the best overseas talent.

Cricket Australia’s leadership has not been known for making big, decisive decisions for many years now … but it’s time to step up to the plate and play some shots.

And it needs to happen soon.

Steve Smith may have to move interstate to help revive the BBL.

Plans to introduce a January BBL-only window and write clauses into the central contracts of national players that they must play in the Big Bash (but be financially rewarded for it) cannot happen until 2024. That’s when the new cycle of international scheduling begins and a new MOU is negotiated between CA and the players.

But 2024 is still a long way away and CA bosses will have their work cut out convincing broadcasters to keep the faith until then that the BBL is about to turn the corner.

It’s time for CA to put its cards on the table and outline a vision. Already there are plans for a draft of overseas players for this coming summer, but it can’t stop there because only Australia’s home grown superstars can save the BBL.

A draft for Australia’s biggest name cricketers – or even a competition-wide draft where all new players to the league enter a lottery system – would certainly get people talking about the BBL again.

The first question is, would the Sydney Sixers be entitled to feel stitched up?

Starc, Smith, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon all have a strong affinity with the Sixers – despite the fact the schedule hardly ever allows them to play – and is it fair for Sydney to be punished for having so many stars in the Test team?

Glenn Maxwell has given years of loyalty to the Melbourne Stars.

The next conundrum is the Melbourne Stars. In Glenn Maxwell, Adam Zampa and Marcus Stoinis, they have three guns who are legitimately Stars players, having played for them year in and year out.

But if Sydney’s international stars are being shipped off around the country, what about Melbourne’s?

Certainly CA would have to put mechanisms in place where clubs would get first dibs on players who have played a certain number of games for them in the previous season.

You can’t have a situation where Sydney gets the seventh pick of the draft and all the Sydney superstars are already gone.

And nor should CA be moving to a system where loyalty is completely dead and a career-long relationship like Maxwell’s with the Stars is torn up.

Players will baulk at the concept of a draft, but as it stands the BBL is the only league in the world where players can choose where they play.

Virat Kohli is from Delhi and resides in Mumbai, yet plies his trade for Bangalore in the IPL.

And Australia’s Test stars would likely only be available for two or three weeks of the BBL – flying in and out of different ports for matches anyway – so it’s not as if they’d be asked to relocate.

Home may be where the heart is but the future of Australia’s once precious cricket jewel may rest on them being prepared to hit the road.