Cricket Australia has decided to move the Biga bash League entirely to Melbourne and the rest of the games would now be played at four venues in the city. This move was praised by players and staff members to have the league completed in one place rather than risking many people with players travelling around the country.
However, there are certain players who believe that if this move by CA could have come earlier and Melbourne Stars, who found themselves playing without 12 of their regular players in back to back games against Perth Scorchers and cross-city rivals Renegades, wouldn’t have been treated unfairly.
“I don’t think it is fair if I’m being honest,” Mike Hussey, the Australian batting legend said on being asked if it was fair for Stars being forced to play their matches even as their regular players suffered from Covid-19.
“If the whole tournament was here in Melbourne, they (CA) could say: ‘OK, you guys are just out for the next week, we’ll catch up your games, later on, we can reschedule those.’
Then you can muck around with the schedule and say ‘let’s get the Strikers in against Melbourne Renegades tonight’. So I personally don’t think it’s fair,” Hussey added.
Hussey also said that though it was great that Premier (club level cricket in Victoria) cricketers got a chance to play in Big Bash, it wasn’t how it should have happened. “As much as it’s great for some Premier Cricket players to get an opportunity in the Big Bash and a chance to maybe find another future star, I don’t think we should be compromising the quality of the Big Bash as well,” he said.
Former England captain Michael Vaughan even went on to say that CA should have made the decision of moving all games to one city earlier than it did.
“You have to feel sorry for the Stars and for the likes of Glenn Maxwell, who two days ago would’ve felt they’ve got a little bit of a chance of doing something in this Big Bash but probably feeling now that chance has probably been taken away,” Vaughan told Fox Cricket.
“They should’ve brought all the teams here (to Melbourne) a few days ago and the Melbourne Stars wouldn’t have had to go through the situations that they’ve gone through,” he added.
As a result of the two losses Stars now only have 10 points from eight games and have slid to the seventh position in the eight-team points table.