Pakistan Players Set to Feature for Full BBL Season, Confirms Cricket Australia CEO

Cricket Australia (CA) has received assurances that Pakistan’s leading players signed for the Big Bash League (BBL) will be available for the entire tournament, despite a potential scheduling clash with an international tour in January.

CA chief executive Todd Greenberg confirmed that Pakistan’s contingent — including Babar Azam, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Mohammad Rizwan, Shadab Khan, Haris Rauf and Hasan Ali — will not be withdrawn midway through the BBL to take part in a short T20I series in Sri Lanka, which the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) recently announced for early January.

“There was concern around that, but we’ve been told that if they’ve been signed by the BBL, they’ll play the whole BBL,” Greenberg said during a wide-ranging media briefing at Adelaide Oval on the morning of the third Ashes Test.

Greenberg also confirmed that Australia’s T20I tour of Pakistan ahead of the T20 World Cup will go ahead as planned. While the dates are yet to be announced, CA and the Australian Cricketers’ Association have already sent representatives to Pakistan to conduct a pre-tour security assessment.

“We’ve just sent a couple of people to Pakistan to do a pre-tour for the T20I games in February,” Greenberg said. “We’ll have discussions with the players after the Ashes series to explain how it will work from a security perspective. I was there in 2022 and it was an amazing experience.”

The three-match ODI leg of that tour, which forms part of the Future Tours Programme (FTP), has been rescheduled to June, following the conclusion of the Pakistan Super League (PSL) and the Indian Premier League (IPL). Those matches will align with Australia’s white-ball tour of Bangladesh, which will also take place in June and include three ODIs and three T20Is.

Greenberg further confirmed Australia’s home schedule, announcing that Mackay and Darwin will host Test matches against Bangladesh during Australia’s winter, with dates to be finalised in January. Bangladesh’s August tour will also mark the return of Test cricket to the Top End for the first time since 2004, while Mackay will stage its first-ever Test match.

Meanwhile, CA reiterated its commitment to hosting at least one pink-ball Test each year through to 2031. Greenberg said the format had proven highly successful both as a broadcast product and for in-stadium attendance.

“I’ve just reviewed the numbers from the Gabba — the pink-ball Test was unbelievable,” he said. “The night session, in particular, attracts double the viewers we’d normally get in the final session of a day Test. It gets more people watching and more people engaged.”

While acknowledging that the concept is not universally popular, Greenberg stressed that pink-ball Tests will remain a key feature of Australia’s schedule. “It’s in our broadcast contracts until 2031, so it’s not going anywhere,” he said. “There won’t be more of them, but it has real benefits. This is part of the evolution of Test cricket.”