This was published 6 months ago
27 cricketers played for Australia this summer. Is that too many?
By Malcolm Conn
As Australia finish their international home summer having used 27 players in two months across the three different formats, chairman of selectors George Bailey insists such a high number of personnel is vital to protect the game’s biggest stars for Test matches and key tournaments.
“It would be really easy to get to a point where players retire from a certain format, and you might lose them for good,” Bailey told this masthead.
Xavier Bartlett made his T20 debut in Tuesday night’s match against the West Indies.Credit: Getty
“You want to get them performing for the key series. That’s really important, because like it or lump it, who remembers what happened in the one-day series in South Africa in the lead-up to a World Cup versus who remembers the World Cup?”
Just 12 players took part in the five Tests against Pakistan and the West Indies, with the only change coming after David Warner’s retirement opened the door for Cameron Green. In contrast, team selection for the one-day and Twenty20 series has been a game of musical chairs.
Josh Hazlewood was the only player chosen for all three formats, playing a one-day match and two T20s before missing Tuesday night’s T20 against the West Indies in Perth.
Usman Khawaja, Alex Carey and Nathan Lyon are Test-only players while captain Pat Cummins and veteran paceman Mitchell Starc were rested from the three one-day and three Twenty20 matches against the West Indies.
Jake Fraser-McGurk was an exciting debutant this season.Credit: Getty
This allowed Xavier Bartlett, Lance Morris, Jake Fraser-McGurk and Will Sutherland to make their Australian debuts in the one-day team this month, while Matt Short, Aaron Hardie and Spencer Johnson made theirs on short one-day tours of South Africa and India in September.
“There’s a silver lining to that because now there seems to be a lot of chatter around what’s going to happen when all these great players retire,” Bailey said. “If they played everything, then you probably get to a precipice, and they’re gone.
“If you manage it correctly, you might have someone who by that stage has played five, ten, 15 or maybe more games in that format, and they’re not coming in cold. It’s international cricket and they slot into your team a lot more smoothly.
“Plus, you’ve got the information on how they perform at that level. Sean Abbott is a good example. He’s bided his time on the outskirts of the one-day team, and then when he gets an opportunity performs really well.”
Despite only five of the Test players figuring in the one-day series and just two in Twenty20 matches, including captain Mitch Marsh, white ball rights holders Fox Sports said they were happy with the teams in both series.
“These white ball games have rated excellently for us,” Fox Cricket general manager Matt Weiss told this masthead. “They’re a lot higher than we projected and 80 per cent up on the last time we played the West Indies.
“What’s been really exciting is seeing players like McGurk, Bartlett, Spencer Johnson. We’re getting a glimpse into the next era, and it looks pretty exciting.”
Cricket Australia also claimed ratings were well up despite the lack of big names in both white ball series, pointing to the Sunday one-day match in Sydney last week.
“The 224k linear TV audience was the largest for a white ball game outside of World Cups since the 2020/21 summer against India and was up 124% on the average linear TV audience for ODIs in the 2022/23 summer,” Cricket Australia told this masthead, pointing out that those figures double when Kayo and Fox stream services are included.
“There is some criticism that ODIs and T20Is are on subscription television, but the amount of revenue this raises from six games is massive compared with alternate rights bids and helps fund community cricket.”
Bailey reaffirmed that Test cricket remained Cricket Australia’s “highest priority”.
“That doesn’t change from Test match to Test match,” Bailey said. “One-day cricket is a bit different because you have to build up to two separate tournaments. You have a four-year cycle to a World Cup. And then obviously, they (the ICC) have reinserted the Champions Trophy, which is a big tournament and pretty cut-throat. So you get a two-year cycle to that.
“And then with T20, you’re obviously building towards the T20 World Cup. So depending on wherever you are in the cycle, obviously selection will be different for each team.”
Having just won the World Cup against India in India last November, the selectors are not only casting towards the next shown piece event in four years time, but also the 50-over Champions Trophy scheduled for Pakistan next year.
The T20 World Cup is in the West Indies and USA this June, with the three T20 matches in New Zealand later this month Australia’s last lead-up before the event. Cameron Green will remain in Australia to play a Sheffield Shield match for Western Australia in preparation for the two-Test series against New Zealand that follows.
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