IPL auction 2024: Steve Smith’s Indian Premier League snub is a blessing for Australian cricket

Andrew McDonald may have breathed a sigh of relief when Steve Smith was overlooked at the IPL auction, as the Australian coach braces for two-years of impending retirements.

Steve Smith’s stunning IPL snubbing could be the open door Australia needs to convince him to forge on as the link man between its batting generations.

Australian coach Andrew McDonald met with Smith during the Ashes to plead with him to bat on in Test cricket as the side braces for the imminent retirement of David Warner and the twilight period for fellow 37-year-old opener Usman Khawaja.

Smith has been coy about his future in international cricket for the past 12 months, fuelling speculation that the run-scoring great may not continue playing for as long as people would expect of a man who could still break Ricky Ponting’s record for most Test centuries for Australia.

While Australia’s other established all-format stars such as Warner and the fast bowlers decided to return home after the ODI World Cup triumph and rest themselves for the Test summer ahead, Smith curiously went the other way and remained in India for the arduous Twenty20 series and even made himself available for a single Big Bash match for the Sydney Sixers.

Yes, Smith is determined to lock down a place opening the batting for Australia at next year’s T20 World Cup, but there may have also been motivation there for the 34-year-old to put himself in the shopfront window of IPL franchises on the eve of the auction on Tuesday night.

However, the surprising decision by IPL franchises to overlook Smith despite his stellar Big Bash form last summer has proven that his biggest and most reliable pay cheque is still going to come from playing Tests for Australia.

Silver lining to Steve Smith’s IPL snub. Picture: Colin Murty/AFP

As one of Australia’s top-ranked stars, Smith’s contract with Cricket Australia is still worth $2 million and selectors would be mad to cut down his salary even if he decides to phase out of ODI cricket – so great is his value to the immediate future of the Test team.

Smith didn’t quite look himself during the World Cup or in the first Test against Pakistan but his best is still the very best as his Test average of 58 in 103 Tests shows.

With so many current stars of the team, including the likes of Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood, all in their mid-30s, Australia risks falling in a hole if there are bulk retirements over the next 12 to 24 months, as there was at the end of the golden generation in 2007.

Former Test captain Michael Clarke was part of that new era and he worries about what’s ahead for an ageing Australian team.

He said selectors shouldn’t put a line through asking Warner to play on if he maintained his hot form through to the Sydney Test, after which he has signalled he will retire.

“I think the most important thing for the selectors is they need to be very strategic around a number of the Australian players because they are at a similar age, that they don’t lose them all at once,” Clarke said on ESPN’s Around The Wicket program.

“I’m not saying Davey has to go at the end of Pakistan. If he changes his mind and wants to keep playing, then that’s a conversation with the selectors behind closed doors.

“They have to think about where is Warner age wise, where is Khawaja, Smith, (Marnus) Labuschagne, Travis Head, our three quicks, Nathan Lyon – they are all a very similar age bracket.

“I don’t think we can afford to lose everyone or a number of players in one go, like we did in 2007.”

Smith can be that bridge that helps Labuschagne and Head lead a new-look batting order forward to the next tours of India and England.

The Test great said one factor playing on his mind were the reflections Test legend Ponting had about his own career, that he perhaps played on longer than he should have in trying to play a similar bridging role between generations.

Steve Smith can guide Australia’s younger generation through the next major tours on the calendar. Picture: Colin Murty/AFP

However, if Smith did have thoughts about a more flexible and pressure-free life on the franchise T20 circuit, it wouldn’t look quite as appealing without the big money from the IPL.

Smith would easily command well-paid gigs in the BBL, the US, Caribbean and UAE.

However, without the mega bucks of the IPL, his earning capacity if he continued to represent Australia in Tests could still be greater.

Smith and his management have indicated he’s going nowhere and has no immediate thoughts of retirement, and money is also not his main motivation given how successful he has been with business ventures outside his huge-earning career in cricket.

As disappointed as Smith would be to miss out on next year’s IPL, Australia will be hoping it crystallises a plan for his Test future in the baggy green because it can’t afford one of the all-time greats to exit the building prematurely.

Originally published as IPL auction 2024: Steve Smith’s Indian Premier League snub is a blessing for Australian cricket