David Warner says it’s unlikely he’ll play in the Big Bash League until after international retirement.
The Australia batsman has not played in his country’s top domestic T20 tournament since the 2012-14 season.
He believes the demands of the international calendar will continue to rule our a BBL return until after his Australia retirement.
An ongoing issue for the BBL is the unavailability of Australia’s top international stars. This is mainly due to the fact the contest doesn’t have its own window on the international calendar and runs alongside some Australia international fixtures.
The problem has been heightened further due to players wanting breaks after being in bio-secure bubbles due to the Coronavirus.
Steve Smith has already ruled out participating in BBL 10, with Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood yet to sign up.
Warner said: “It's difficult for us players to play all three forms, even if there is a window, you've got to have that break because you're going full tilt into summer as well, there's no off-season for us.
“Personally, I've got three kids at home and a wife that I owe my time to as well. So playing all three formats – that's very difficult to be able to do, and I don't think I'll play while I'm playing for Australia still – that's honestly speaking.
“This last six months has been quite challenging in itself, getting used to these bubbles and trying to get used to not having the family with me.
“The next 12 months is very difficult when you look at the calendar, there's going to be definitely times where you can come home and have time with your family, but yet again you've got that 14 days that's in place that you're going to have to do beforehand, so that almost puts it out of the conversation.
Top Players Instead of Rule Changes Would Help BBL
Meanwhile, Warner believes finding a way to secure top international stars for future Big Bash League tournaments would be the best way to improve things.
He thinks taking those steps would be much better than recent rule changes announced by Cricket Australia.
“I think the most important thing is if you can get the Australian players and the best international players coming out to play in that, that would probably fix that sort of issue with what they're trying to tinker with the rules,” Warner said.
“The rules that have come out, I understand the reasoning why they're bringing it out.
“Do we need to tinker with it? Personally, I don't think we do. I think it's just about getting the right people to come out and play, the right access to players to play, the Australian contracted players.
“Going back to those rules, they've been put in place for a reason to create a bit more engagement. When you lose three wickets in Powerplays, which happened quite significantly the last couple of years, the game's pretty much dead, especially when you're chasing 200.
“If you can sort of have that extra Powerplay at the end, that sub, vice versa, it can make a difference – we'll have to wait and see. But first and foremost, I think it's getting the best players to play, and at this present time in the scheduling, it's very difficult to do that.”
