Pat Cummins took to X (formerly Twitter) to call out a media report regarding his participation in the 2027/28 Australian home summer.
On Friday (May 14), Australian media outlet The Age ran a story titled “Players consider jumping ship for South Africa T20 unless BBL pay improves”.
Hours after it was published online, Australian Test skipper Pat Cummins, named in the piece, responded on X (formerly Twitter) with, “Everything you’ve written about me in this about SAT20 NOC and The Hundred offer is made up.”
What was said in the report that Pat Cummins refuted?
The report stated that Australia’s high-profile men’s cricketers, including Test captain Cummins, could consider opting out of the Australian summer season of 2027/28, in favour of playing the SA20 franchise T20 league unless they are paid roughly AUD 1 million each to play the Big Bash League (BBL).
With relatively low-profile international series against Pakistan and Sri Lanka that season, the BBL is set to be the main attraction, and reportedly the source of tension between the players and Cricket Australia.
The Age on Friday and Code Sports on May 9 have both reported that there has been growing discontent among senior Australian players that they are paid over AUD 100,000 less than most overseas players in the BBL, most of whom come with a significantly lower profile than them.
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Code Sports elaborated that the players had been willing to put up with this in the faith that privatisation of the league would arrive soon enough, and perhaps change the salary structure. But those hopes were dashed recently as two Australian state associations, Cricket NSW and Queensland Cricket, opposed the move.
Cummins specifically refuted two aspects of the report in The Age – the possibility that he might request Cricket Australia for a No-Objection Certificate (NOC) to play the SA20, and that he received an offer to play in The Hundred in England this year.
The latter was a claim that stated Cummins, along with fellow senior fast bowlers Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood, had been offered around AUD 800,000 each as direct signings (outside the player auction) to participate in The Hundred – deals that they declined in favour of participating in the home Test series against Bangladesh that clashes with the tournament.
Cummins has captained the Sunrisers Hyderabad franchise in the IPL since 2024. The team’s owners also own teams in The Hundred (Sunrisers Leeds) and the SA20 (Sunrisers Eastern Cape). His only other major franchise deal outside Australia is in Major League Cricket, with the San Francisco Unicorns.
It is conceivable and understandable that as a national team captain, he would be quick to directly refute any rumours of him deprioritising Australian cricket. But Cummins himself has also opened up on potential player anxieties before.
“During The Hundred this season, we’ve got two Test matches against Bangladesh,” he said on the Business of Sport podcast this March. “All our guys that will play in that 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. So 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 just accept that’s always going to be the case forever.”
