Casualty Ward and International Duty – Why the BBL could flop

13/12/11 17:30 - UPDATE: "Our long term planning for the Boxing Day Test had been based around the principle that all fit players would be available for round one T20 Big Bash League games and then their focus will turn towards their individual preparation plans for the first Test against India," Pat Howard talking about Shaun Marsh pulling out of the Chairman's XI game, shifting Ed Cowan to replace him after an "Issue" with the Sydney Sixers. 

BBL 1-0 National Interests - Cricinfo; a very good article involving this story, I think that it is a farce that these franchises are taking away potential avenues for a Baggy Green (Although Khawaja will most likely retain his position if Marsh is unfit.)

Burn courtesy of Shane Warne

As I highlighted in the article “the next step in the T20 revolution” I only envision two ways that the Big Bash League could “flop” and it certainly has nothing to do with public attention or filling of cricket grounds. As evident in the Australian Test Team, injuries have already hit hard this summer to the likes of Mitchell Johnson, Ryan Harris, Shane Watson and Patrick Cummins. Inspired by Shane Warne’s stupidity of severely buring his magic hand, I will take a serious look into the two major factors that could consume the Big Bash League in its inaugural season that are the Casualty Ward and International Duty.

Australia has the busiest summer for cricket in the world, every summer with at least 5 test matches, 7 One Day International’s and 3 International Twenty20’s, this makes the Australian International team’s agenda the better part of 3 months long with just International duty. Next to all of these International players play no domestic cricket during the summer which includes the KFC Big Bash (Now Big Bash League). I believe this presents a serious downfall for the Big Bash League because the fans and no doubt, the teams want the best players to play but in the schedule of things, can’t. Although the season is already as packed as it is, an adequate reshuffling is in order to allow the best players to play within their own domestic competition which they have signed up for. As it stands most of the top players may not even manage 1 or 2 games for their team. It must be noted that this issue becomes even more serious when arguably the best T20 player in the world Dave Warner has gained selection into the Australian Test Team.

Usually, I don’t think this would have been made such a big deal in the scheme of things this summer, but since the Big Bash League has been marketed to include the big name players representing their towns...it gives you the sense that you are being let down, and imagining something that could have been. Using Dave Warner as an example again, he was used as the real “poster boy” for this competition and now, may not even play in it at all. This is especially disappointing after all of the hype surrounding him opening the batting for the Sydney Thunder with Chris Gayle creating the most explosive T20 pair in the world. Unavailability of players such as; Shane Watson, Dave Warner (Captain of the Thunder), Brad Haddin (Captain of the Sixers), Ryan Harris, Shaun Marsh, James Pattinson, Nathan Lyon really puts a huge hole in the competition and I see this as something that needs to be addressed.

This brings me to the second of my two points, the large injury cloud surrounding Australian cricket at the moment. As it stands now, several big name domestic and Australian international players are injured including:

Shane Watson

Shaun Marsh

Ryan Harris

Ben Cutting

Mitchell Johnson

John Hastings

Stephen O’Keefe

Ben Rohrer

Pat Cummins

Brad Hodge

Tim Paine (Captain of the Hobart Hurricanes)
Shane Warne (Well we don't really know whats going on...)

These are just a few of the big name players to add to the list of Australian Test players that will not be playing the full Big Bash League, which comes as a real disappointment but in a way can be an attribute to get a burst of energy through a team, especially because in the KFC Big Bash the international players did not play a single game. It would be interesting to note that the Sydney Sixers only have 14 available players that they can choose from for their first game, and a few of these have been selected in the Chairman’s Xi to play the Indian touring squad. Ed Cowan is amongst this and may be overlooked for a Baggy Green because of it, if Shane Watson is not fit.The injuries can be seen as a factor that could influence the “flop” of the BBL because once again, the best players are missing out, the best cricket is not occurring, the “names” are not playing, the BBL is not living up to the high expectation that it has set for itself with a “diving the nation” “who’s side are you on” approach gaining great support from fans.

Overall, hopefully these factors don’t stop the Big Bash League from being successful and the international players are available to play as many games as possible without clashing with International Duty. If this were to happen, the Big Bash League would receive the accolades that it is calling for through the great anticipation it is creating through exciting cricket and big hits.

Second Slip,