Tests or T20? Top players may skip BBL after India showdown

Australia’s showdown with India and a bid for back-to-back World Test Championship titles may keep all but a handful of Pat Cummins’ team from featuring in the Big Bash League this summer.

Fixtures for the BBL have the tournament beginning in Perth on December 15 and concluding on January 27. Theoretically, the Test players will be available for games between January 8 and 19 when the regular rounds finish up.

Australia celebrate their World Test Championship final win.Credit: Getty Images

While every member of the Test team now has either a formal or informal commitment to a club – including frontline quicks Cummins (Sydney Thunder), Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood (Sydney Sixers) – their exertions over five Tests against Rohit Sharma’s team are expected to result in a need for rest.

Cummins and company are due to fly to Sri Lanka for another two Test matches before the BBL even finishes, with those games potentially crucial to qualification for the World Test Championship decider at Lord’s in June. That tour is then immediately followed by the ODI Champions Trophy in Pakistan, before the Indian Premier League kicks off in March.

Cricket Australia’s schedulers have attempted to clear out space in January for all international players to take part in the BBL once the home Tests conclude, but the Sri Lanka series greatly diminishes the possibility of top players taking part.

Alistair Dobson, the head of the BBL, expressed optimism that there would be some players able to do it all this summer.

Test players and their BBL club alignment

• Usman Khawaja - Brisbane Heat
• Steve Smith - Sydney Sixers
• Marnus Labuschagne - Brisbane Heat
• Cameron Green - Perth Scorchers
• Travis Head - Adelaide Strikers
• Mitchell Marsh - Perth Scorchers
• Mitchell Starc - Sydney Sixers
• Pat Cummins - Sydney Thunder
• Nathan Lyon - Melbourne Renegades
• Josh Hazlewood - Sydney Sixers

“This is a brilliant schedule for fans, with uninterrupted action every night of the regular season and all the marquee games our fans love,” Dobson said. “We also can’t wait to welcome back members of the Australian Test team once again in January, taking advantage of a bigger window following the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series.”

Travis Head, for example, has reached terms with the Adelaide Strikers that will be announced in coming weeks, but skipped BBL games last summer to recuperate between home Test series against Pakistan and the West Indies.

His workloads are being closely examined by the national selectors after Head struggled to perform consistently for the Test team last summer, following his match-winning performances at the ODI World Cup in India.

Numerous multi-format players are currently signed to play in the US-based Major League Cricket tournament, before white-ball series against Scotland and England in the UK, to be followed by more white-ball games at home against Pakistan ahead of the Border-Gavaskar series.

Starc, who played in the IPL this year but has often foregone franchise offers to prolong his Test career in particular, has said the current array of Twenty20 leagues has created an unceasing menu of matches and money for players.

“I think Test cricket needs to be protected somewhat,” Starc told the Willow Talk podcast. “There’s an option to do anything.

“There’s Aussie guys playing the MLC, then there’s the Hundred after it, you’ve got ILT20 and BBL during the Australian summer, the IPL has its own window, Sri Lanka league is on at the moment, T10 leagues as well, and legends leagues – it’s like the Champions Tour in golf, you can go play forever.”

Players are growing increasingly wary of what they see as imbalances in the international system, meaning players from some countries still have strong financial incentives to play Tests, while others are left with little option but to put franchise dollars first. The threat of Test cricket shrinking to as few as six teams by 2027 is very real.

“You don’t want to see something where South Africa send not their strongest team because they have to stay at home and play their domestic T20 competition,” Starc said.

“What happens if it’s an Australian situation where, we’re very fortunate to be paid what we are, but our Big Bash is on at the same time as our Test matches and you go ‘Smith, Cummins, Hazlewood, you all need to play BBL instead of playing three Tests in Australia’? That’s what you want to protect against.

“The way that it’s divvied up at ICC level is why they can’t justify giving up $200-300,000 contracts in franchise cricket to play Tests, because it’s an imbalance there with the top six and the rest.”

The recently retired David Warner is expected to reach terms with Sydney Thunder to play a full BBL season, after two years when he mixed Tests with club duty.

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