Australian skipper Pat Cummins has responded to a controversial report which claims that a group of senior players were approached to play The Hundred 2026 and they are considering No-Objection Certificate (NOC) to play in the SA20 in 2028 over Big Bash League (BBL) if their contract amount is not increased by Cricket Australia as per market value.
Cummins replied to The Age’s journalist on X (formerly Twitter), writing: “Everything you’ve written about me in this about SAT20 NOC and The Hundred offer is made up (thumbs up emoji)”.
The report claims that Cummins will consider foregoing CA contract if his demands are not met. In addition to Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc are other players who were allegedly offered $800,000 each to play in The Hundred’s upcoming edition and skip the Test series against Bangladesh.
“A group of senior players including captain Pat Cummins will seriously consider asking Cricket Australia for no-objection certificates to play in the SA20 in 2028 if they cannot be assured of what they see as fair market value for their services, according to two sources with knowledge of confidential discussions,” the article read.
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“This masthead can also reveal that Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc were approached to play in the Hundred competition this year for pre-auction signing fees of about $800,000 each. Doing so would have stopped them from playing in the Top End Test series against Bangladesh in August.”
When Cummins said players sacrificed The Hundred contract for Bangladesh Test series
Earlier, Cummins had said that Australian players are currently choosing the historic Bangladesh Test series over The Hundred contracts but it won’t be the case in the future as players get paid handsomely for 20 days of work.
“Obviously a big Ashes series – all the main guys want to play that series,” Cummins had said on the Business of Sport podcast. “For example, during the Hundred this season we’ve got two Test matches against Bangladesh. All our guys that will play in that Test match have opted out of going to the Hundred auction, but that’s not going to be the case forever.
“Some of our guys are saying no to half a million pounds for 20 days’ work to go and play those two Test matches against Bangladesh. I think it is a tension point. At the moment, our guys are so keen to play for Australia that they’re happy to forgo that, but I don’t think we can accept that that is going to be the case forever.”
Why players’ exodus from BBL has become a topic of discussion?
BBL was set to be privatised but the idea was shelved by CA due to pushback from teams. As the influx of huge amounts of cash is unlikely, players won’t see a huge jump in their remuneration if they opt to play in BBL over SA20 or the ILT20.
Cummins-led SRH in playoffs hunt
Cummins' SRH are placed third on the points table with seven wins from 12 games. They suffered a massive 82-run defeat at the hands of Gujarat Titans (GT) in the previous game which hurt their net run rate (NRR). SRH's next two games are against Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB). They will need at least a win from two games to have a chance of qualifying for playoffs.