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The quickly-shifting landscape of world cricket has seen more and more commercial weight being thrown behind franchise leagues across the globe, posing an existential question for international cricket. Even the biggest stars and the best players in international cricket aren’t immune from this, as a recent report from the Sydney Morning Herald revealed that two of Australia’s finest, Travis Head and captain Pat Cummins, were provided gargantuan offers to commit themselves to franchise cricket.
The report states that the two World Cup and World Test Championship winning stars were offered deals in the range of 10 million Australian dollars a year, which translates to INR 58 crore per annum. This would be a number which places them as amongst the highest earners in Australian sports and in cricket in general, and was made by a franchise ownership group with a presence in the highly lucrative Indian Premier League.
The two players currently earn between 1.5 and 3 million Australian dollars from their national team contracts, with this signalling a massive upjump in their earnings. However, the report stated that representatives for both players politely turned down the offer, which was an ‘informal’ one, choosing to stick with their national team as core members of its current generation.
Franchise leagues continue to put pressure on national boards
Both Cummins and Head represented Sunrisers Hyderabad in the IPL in 2025, where Cummins is also the captain. They have also played in the American Major League Cricket, where Head represents Washington Freedom and Cummins plays for San Francisco Unicorns.
This informal offer came to light during recent discussions held by Cricket Australia, player representatives, and front offices of teams in the Australian Big Bash League, as considerations of privatising the BBL franchises remain ongoing.
The teams are currently affiliated with domestic teams in Australia, but a need to keep up with the flow of money in leagues such as the IPL, SA20, ILT20, and recently in the Hundred has meant that bringing in investors for Australia’s franchise T20 league has been tabled as the path forward.
While Head and Cummins remain committed to the international cause, as stars of the Test team as well as Australia’s white ball efforts, recent years have seen more and more players leave behind international cricket to place a priority on T20 leagues. The lucrative nature of these tournaments have seen high-profile T20 stars like Nicholas Pooran and Heinrich Klaasen step away from their international teams despite being in the peak of their powers.
