Of simultaneous Testing and Bashing
This summer, Australian cricket's two big summer attractions - the Big Bash League and a promising Test series - are set to run parallel to each other, dividing the season, and stakeholder loyalties down the middle
Nitin Sundar
25-Feb-2013
This summer, Australian cricket's two big summer attractions - the Big Bash League and a promising Test series - are set to run parallel to each other, dividing the season, and stakeholder loyalties down the middle. Gideon Haigh in the Australian explains how the excessive partying that the Big Bash entails could leave everyone concerned with a hangover.
After devastating India at Lord's a few months ago, Stuart Broad credited his having been left out of England's one-day squad and allowed to play a county match for Nottingham-shire, where the red ball had encouraged him to pitch the ball up and regain his swing. In other words, whoever designed CA's schedule did not have the priorities of fast bowlers in mind.
Whose priorities were served? It's obvious when you peruse the Bash fixtures: the states. There are fixtures at the SCG while the MCG Test is in progress and vice versa; Bashes on 11 Test match evenings, the final coinciding with the Perth Test's scheduled last day.
Nitin Sundar is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo