Melbourne Stars v Perth Scorchers postponed as BBL competition sits on knife edge
Following 40 rapid Covid cases threatening to burst the brittle Big Bash bubble, careers and livelihoods of players now hang in the balance.
Glenn Maxwell walked to the crease at the MCG on Monday night and told wicket-keeper Sam Harper: “Stay away, I might have Covid”.
The tongue-in-cheek quip soon proved to be no joke. Maxwell recorded a positive Rapid Antigen Test after that match, backed up by a positive PCR on Tuesday.
The Melbourne Stars’ cluster swelled to 21 and at 3 wins, 4 loses they had now lost their captain.
The next day Brisbane Heat returned 12 positives in one round of PCR tests and it jetted assistant coach Darren Lehmann’s son, Jake, from Adelaide to Geelong on Thursday as one of multiple fill-ins for its game against Melbourne Renegades.
Catch every moment of The Ashes live and ad-break free during play on Kayo. New to Kayo? Try 14-days free now.
The Heat has now assembled a “clean pool” of about six local cricketers who will train together for the rest of the season. Those lads will be one possible infection away from a sudden debut under the bright lights as finals approach.
On Thursday it was Sydney Sixers hit hardest, losing four players to PCR tests. They won’t play against Perth Scorchers on Sunday night.
In total the virus has penetrated the Big Bash bubble more than 40 times across seven clubs – all bar Adelaide Strikers.
Now that bubble is threatening to burst with half the season still to be played.
The Stars were forced to find a bunch of ring-ins for one-sided home games against Perth Scorchers and Melbourne Renegades on Sunday and Monday.
They didn’t even have time to jet in some of the replacements they wanted from New South Wales while some players ran out in the wrong sizes because the apparel had run out.
St Kilda wicket-keeper Paddy Rowe was a ring-in for a ring-in, receiving his phone call hours before the Scorchers game on Sunday morning because fellow clubbie Brayden Stepien had tested positive.
And with a constellation of star power sick in bed, Maxwell’s men unsurprisingly lost badly and dropped to the bottom of the ladder.
Stars players are frustrated that their season is slipping away because of something that is entirely out of their control.
The BBL might be hit-and-giggle to most of the public, but this is their careers and their livelihoods and they are competitive animals.
Good work Kath. Feeling for the Stars. Maybe a plan would be to pause & get all teams in the one state. Isolate for 10 days - which would allow everyone to be ready to go - plus get venues/ staff ready then restart ! Have to keep the integrity of the BBL & be fair to all teams https://t.co/7dPD01Ix3a
— Shane Warne (@ShaneWarne) January 6, 2022
When Cricket Australia wanted them to front up again on Friday night at Adelaide Oval – after most of their sick players and coaches had been cleared from isolation – they lodged a formal request not to play based on player welfare.
That was accepted on Thursday as the game was postponed, allowing the Stars to at least stretch their legs and breathe some fresh air before jumping on a flight and worrying about facing Rashid Khan.
The postponement will also give tournament organisers a rare chance to catch their breath because, finally, there won’t be a daily game to try and pull off in the face of the virus.
But starting on Saturday there are 20 games in 12 days … all while navigating changing government advice and as the flexibility for fixture flips shrinks by the day as teams start to play each other twice.
A revised fixture headlines Friday’s task list and that will obviously include trying to map out those 12 days loaded with double-headers.
The Covid budget is already astronomical and it is understood Cricket Australia is burning through 300 rapid tests each day to run the BBL alone.
A limousine company has been engaged so players and officials can be driven around in private cars by PCR-tested drivers.
Clubs have previously been flying commercially, with Cricket Australia booking extra rows either side of players on the Qantas flights to provide a buffer from the public.
But chartered planes are now expected to be used out of Melbourne and Sydney airports.
The eight BBL clubs have been told they will slowly migrate to Melbourne, where they will be based for the rest of the season.
Victoria’s venues - the MCG, Marvel Stadium and GMHBA Stadium - will get some extra games, but not all.
Clubs will still fly in and out for games interstate because playing at neutral venues in front of tiny crowds does nothing but kill the atmosphere and competition.
But grouping clubs together in one base gives a safety blanket during the upcoming fixture crush because one team can sub-in for a game at the last minute if another is suddenly floored by the virus.
CA executed that on Wednesday night, rolling out the Scorchers against the Sixers on the Gold Coast because the Brisbane boys had been sent to bed.
The Stars have been hurt the most and Brisbane is about to experience that same pain.
Former Stars captain Shane Warne and Mike Hussey, whose brother Dave coaches the club and was part of the Covid cluster, both questioned the competition’s integrity, saying it wasn’t fair to make them play this week.
The TAB punter who put $109,000 on Maxwell or Marcus Stoinis to top score for the Stars this summer probably agrees. He must feel sick, with or without the virus.
‘Healthy’ Hilton Cartwright (256 runs) leads Joe Clarke (203) and Maxwell (188) with Stoinis on 65. Those three all have Covid.
The wipe-outs have, so far, been a positive for Melbourne Renegades.
By the luck of the draw, they faced green and teal teams masquerading as the Stars and Heat when the majority of their actual players were watching on TV in quarantine.
The integrity question is valid - but it will become far greater in finals.
The cricket calendar is already claustrophobic and so there is very little, if any, room to move beyond the January 28 finish line.
So what happens if Perth Scorchers, dominant all season despite being forced to leave their home state, records 12 positives in two weeks’ time?
And if the Stars and Heat qualify for finals will they suddenly be immune from such anxiety because most of their players have already fought off the virus?
Would their positives finally be a positive?
Cartwright said he was having nightmares about getting the virus, sometimes waking up in a panic thinking he had a swab up his nose.
Well, imagine the nerves undergoing a rapid test just before a final?
Most of the Stars players endured 36 hellish hours in bed when they were crook.
But others were asymptomatic and shocked to be told they were positive, so no player can take a test with confidence.
MAXY GOES DOWN AS WOUNDED BBL VOWS TO SOLDIER ON
Julian Linden
The Big Bash will limp on despite being ravaged by the relentless spread of the fastest moving virus in human history.
The competition’s biggest drawcard – Glenn Maxwell – is the latest T20 superstar to test positive, joining an exploding list of players to contract the highly contagious omicron variant, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
Wednesday’s match between the Brisbane Heat and the Sydney Sixers at Metricon Stadium on the Gold Coast had to be postponed after a dozen Heat players returned positive PCR tests.
Admirably, the Queenslanders offered to find some last-minute replacements to ensure the game went ahead but they ran out of time.
Alistair Dobson, Cricket Australia’s General Manager of Big Bash Leagues, said the decision to postpone the match was made in the interests of health and safety, declaring it was “the only option available given the number of cases within the Heat squad and the inability to secure the required number of players fit to take the field.”
A replacement date for the match has not been decided yet with the Heat due to play the Melbourne Renegades in Geelong on Thursday, with wholesale changes to the schedule under consideration.
This season’s BBL has now lost so many players that some teams have been forced to field weakened line-ups to salvage the competition, which may still happen.
That’s honourable stuff, but the record books should still attach an asterisk to the results explaining that it was heavily compromised, regardless of what happens next.
The Melbourne Stars have been one of the worst affected, with World Cup-winner Maxwell just the latest crowd favourite to return a positive rapid antigen test, but they could have up to nine players back for their next match, such is the fluid nature of the new strain.
Cricket Australia plans to push ahead with the competition, with most of the remaining games likely to be held in a single hub in Melbourne, with some exceptions, including the Sydney Bash remaining at the SCG on January 15.
Saving the tournament will help soften the blow from the multi million dollar shortfall Cricket Australia and its broadcast partners are expected to incur this summer, largely through circumstances beyond their control.
Covid has been the biggest culprit, but England’s dud Ashes team have contributed to the poor balance sheet through their lame performances.
There’s not a true-blue Aussie who doesn’t love seeing the Poms lose but the fun is taken out of it when they throw in the towel as quickly as Joe Root’s men have in this series.
And it’s Australia that’s paying the price – literally – for England’s weak capitulation.
The farcical third Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, which ended before lunch on day three, cost Cricket Australia a squillion in gate takings while the television networks lost a fortune in advertising revenue.
What made it especially galling was that the viewing numbers and attendances – even with most of the Barmy Army staying put in England – have been above expectations but the matches just haven’t lasted long enough.
And that may be the start of Cricket Australia’s problems because the rest of the season is also in danger of being disrupted.
News Corp can reveal that Australia’s one-day internationals and T20s against New Zealand and Sri Lanka might also have to be reshuffled.
The Aussies are due to play a total of eight matches against the two visiting sides over three weeks, but the logistics of moving the teams and television crews from state to state has forced a rethink.
More Coverage
Schutt makes World Cup history as Australia destroys New Zealand
Australia continued their march towards a seventh Women’s T20 World Cup title with a crushing over New Zealand that saw star seamer Megan Schutt register staggering figures.
Leg Buys: Veteran poised for new club, quirky rule for new league
LEG BUYS: When the WBBL season gets underway this month, expect some big-name replacement players to land back in the tournament – with New Zealand star Suzie Bates finding a new home.