Khawaja says cricket bosses should consider moving Boxing Day, New Year’s Tests

3 hours ago 2

Usman Khawaja believes cricket bosses should consider moving the Boxing Day and New Year’s Tests if it allows the top Australian players to take part in the Big Bash every year.

Radical changes to the Australian summer have been part of wide discussions about possible privatisation of the BBL, including the prospect of moving the league into an October-November window where it does not have to compete with overseas leagues for talent.

Khawaja celebrating the first of two
centuries on his return to the Test side at the SCG in 2022 against England.

This masthead revealed dual $10 million offers to Pat Cummins and Travis Head to quit Australian cricket and play franchise cricket full-time, which emerged as Cricket Australia and the states wrestle with how to keep the BBL competitive with other privately-owned leagues.

For Khawaja, a long-time advocate of privatisation, decision-makers must be bold enough to consider moving one or both of the summer’s showpiece Test matches if it means the likes of Cummins, Head, Cameron Green and others can play in the BBL.

“At some level, at some stage, everything that grows must change,” Khawaja told this masthead. “As much as I love the Boxing Day and SCG Test match and I don’t want to move them, if it’s better for the growth of the game and allows Australian players to play in the Big Bash, I think it’s worth talking about and exploring. People don’t like change.

“My view is always for the growth of the game. I do think the BBL needs to be privatised for the growth of the game, but I do believe certain boundaries need to be put around how we privatise it, who we’re privatising to, what control CA has in terms of the product.

“There are some things we need to maintain, but also you need to let the bird fly. We can’t just keep holding the reins forever, because it’s a product that ... look at sport in general, the NBA, Major League Baseball, these sports that have been growing through privatisation, I think the pros outweigh the cons, but there’s still a responsibility to the game. You can do both.”

The notion of moving the Melbourne or Sydney Tests out of the way of the BBL is highly contentious. It’s been subject to spirited debate within CA and among the states. Both CA chair Mike Baird and chief executive Todd Greenberg have repeatedly said neither the MCG nor SCG Tests are at risk of being moved.

‘As much as I love the Boxing Day and SCG Test match and I don’t want to move them, if it’s better for the growth of the game and allows Australian players to play in the Big Bash, I think it’s worth talking about’

Usman Khawaja

Another with those ties is Mitchell Starc, who has been unveiled as a Sydney Sixers signing after giving himself some calendar room by retiring from international T20 cricket. This means he can play the Ashes, turn out for the Sixers then spend February and March at home before the Indian Premier League.

Starc is adamant, though, that the home Test calendar should not be tampered with.

“The only view I have on it is the Test cricket schedule is not to be touched. Test cricket is the pinnacle,” Starc said. “I don’t think Test cricket should make way for T20 cricket at all, whether it’s the BBL, the IPL, anything.

“The Test summer is the Test summer. I would hate to see that change for domestic cricket. That is not a snipe at anyone, that’s just my opinion of where Test cricket sits on my priority list. “Whether you move the Big Bash into a smaller window and play back-to-back games, it’s not as physically demanding as Test cricket. I know they’ve shortened the schedule already. I think that’s been a positive impact.”

Mitchell Starc, Scott Boland, Nathan Lyon, Pat Cummins and Beau Webster in the SCG sheds.

One of the ideas that has floated back up in recent weeks is to move the BBL to October and November, kicking off the season and making the most of the “shoulder months” immediately after the football codes wind down.

That concept was first floated by the Australian Cricketers Association in 2014, but CA has always been implacably opposed, on the basis that the BBL is marketed to children and families and should be played in the school holidays.

Glenn Maxwell, who is rehabbing a broken wrist and hopes to be considered for the final few T20 internationals against India in early November, said that it had become harder for clubs like his beloved Melbourne Stars to attract the best players because of competing leagues in South Africa and the UAE.

“We’ve always talked about the ability to attract the best players in the world,” Maxwell said. “The window probably getting smaller and smaller for the BBL to fit in with all these other leagues taking over time in the calendar.

“Certainly to get players for the full round of games has been the most difficult thing. You have guys coming in for parts of the tournament, but if you’re trying to build your side around players, you probably need them here for the majority of the time.”

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