Australia Test captain Pat Cummins has sent a stark warning regarding the future of cricket.
The 32-year-old, along with the likes of Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, Cameron Green and Travis Head, has rejected huge sums of money to compete in franchise tournaments, instead opting to continue representing the country’s Test side.
This is set to be the case again in August when he misses out on The Hundred in order to fulfil the two-match Test series against Bangladesh in Darwin and Mackay.
And Cummins, who has played 72 Tests and taken 315 wickets for Australia, admits players could begin to choose franchise competitions over the longer format in the near-future.
Speaking on the Business of Sport podcast, he said: “The interesting point is, big Ashes series, all the main guys want to play that series.
“(However), for example, during the Hundred this season we’ve got two Test matches against Bangladesh.
“All our guys that will play in that Test (series) have opted out of going into the Hundred auction, but that’s not going to be the case forever.
“Some of our guys are saying no to a half a million pounds for 20 days’ work to go and play those two Test matches against Bangladesh, so I think it is a tension point.
“This is the essence: our guys are so keen to play for Australia that they’re happy to forgo that, but I don’t think we can just accept that’s always going to be the case forever.”
The continual battle to retain the prestige of Test cricket comes after a successful summer for Australia saw them thrash England 4-1 to retain the Ashes.
But they could not follow it up in the T20 World Cup as they were embarrassingly dumped out in the group stage following defeats to Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka.
Cummins missed the tournament due to a persistent back injury — having played only one of the five Ashes Tests.
