Australia’s Test stars are expected to be available for the final two weeks of the Big Bash League after officials unveiled a ‘Back to the Future’-style schedule for the 2024-25 season.
Cricket Australia has confirmed this summer’s BBL fixtures, with almost the entire competition falling during school holidays for the first time in eight years.
The absence of a day-night or Perth Test in the BBL season also allows for an uninterrupted run of prime-time matches and represents a return to the league’s golden days.
“We know that the strength of the BBL is that you can tune in every night and see great cricket and entertaining watching,” said BBL boss Alistair Dobson when the fixtures were released on Friday.
“We know that if we start this season with some momentum, new opportunities will be open to us.
“Every night is a blockbuster because there are no interruptions, great games on the best slots.”
Perth opens the season on December 15th against the Melbourne Stars, with the final taking place on January 27th.
In theory, test players should be available from around January 9, with the international summer ending with the SCG test.
Australia’s next cricket match is scheduled for a two-Test series against Sri Lanka in late January or early February; dates are yet to be confirmed.
This likely means Australia’s batters will be available for the end of the regular season.
There remains a small hope that the top pacers could potentially feature in a small number of matches, depending on how they recover from the five-Test series against India.
Mitchell Starc has not played in the BBL since 2014-15 and Pat Cummins since 2019-20, but both featured in this year’s IPL.
The foreign leagues remain a challenge for the BBL.
There were discussions about moving the ILT20 in the UAE, in which up to 54 foreign players take part, out of the BBL window.
Instead, the date was brought forward by a week this summer and now begins on January 10, resulting in further overlap with the Big Bash.
The SA20 in South Africa also remains in the same time frame, which means there is a possibility that foreign players will leave the BBL in the middle.
Cricket Australia has responded by introducing multi-year contracts for overseas players, on the condition that they stay in Australia for the duration of the BBL season.
So far, Sam Billings, Tom Curran, Colin Munro and Chris Jordan have taken up this option, with each club limited to one multi-year contract with one foreign player.
“It confirms what we hoped and knew, that under the right circumstances the BBL is still a competition that players want to be part of,” Dobson said.