BBL general manager Alistair Dobson says he accepts the “fine balancing act” that comes with securing Australia’s Test stars for games after a coach hit out at Cricket Australia.
Dobson said CA’s high performance staff did a “pretty good job” of accommodating the BBL in Australian players’ schedules despite the league missing out on access to Scott Boland and Nathan Lyon for the first week of games.
Lyon’s Melbourne Renegades coach David Saker called for more transparency from CA over when players would be available as he questioned whether Boland needed to be rested from a Melbourne Stars game a week before the first Test against Pakistan.
“I want the best players in the whole of Australia playing this competition. I can’t see how Scotty Boland bowling four overs is going to have a huge effect on him, and he’s been playing enough cricket. Four overs is not going to kill him,” Saker told Code Sports on Wednesday.
The BBL is back! Watch every match live with no ad breaks during play on Kayo. New to Kayo? Start Your Free Trial Today >
“It’s so hard for Cricket Australia to get it right, but there should be more consistency with who can play and who can’t play and there’s got to be more transparency a long way out. It seems to me at times it’s done on the run instead of long-term planning,”
Dobson, who has been at the helm of the BBL and WBBL since the 2019-20 season, said he understood the need for “compromise” over the Australian players and particularly members of the bowling attack.
“It’s always been the nature of the BBL to play in and around the international summer. It does sometimes impact player availability, but it’s also one of the great strengths of our competition,” he told SEN.
“You can sit there and watch a Test match during the day into a Big Bash game at night time, and that always comes with some compromise around players.
“I think we work really closely with our high performance part of the business on making sure and assessing player availability, and they do a pretty good job of making players available when they can.
“The quick bowlers obviously come with other limits and other restrictions. We’ve got five Test matches to go this summer, so it’s a long summer ahead … it’s a fine balancing act.”
Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne and Michael Neser (pending a fitness test) are all poised to play for Brisbane Heat in Thursday night’s season opener against the Stars.
Steve Smith is available to play in the Sydney Sixers’ opening game before the first Test on December 14, but it’s yet to be decided whether Alex Carey and Travis Head will be available for the Strikers’ opening game on Saturday against the Heat.
Discussion about this post