Pat Cummins slams fake reports linking him with SA20 2028 over BBL

Australia’s Test and ODI captain Pat Cummins has slammed reports of him contemplating playing in SA20 2028 instead of plying his trade in the Big Bash League (BBL). The report also claimed that Cummins was offered pre-auction signing fees of about $800,000 each to play in the Hundred Men’s competition later this year.

However, the speedster has denied the claims by openly calling out a journalist through a post on his X account. “Everything you’ve written about me in this about SAT20 NOC and The Hundred offer is made up,” wrote Cummins in reply to the report shared by the journalist on X.

Everything you’ve written about me in this about SAT20 NOC and The Hundred offer is made up 👍

— Pat Cummins (@patcummins30) May 14, 2026

According to a report in The Age, Australia’s top cricketers are planning to quit home summer to play in South Africa’s franchise T20 tournament, SA20, in 2028. They’re reportedly set to ask Cricket Australia (CA) for competitive salaries of about $1 million each to take part in the BBL, or they will take no-objection certificates to play in the SA20.

The report also states that Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc were approached to play in the Hundred 2026 for pre-auction signing fees of about $800,000 each. However, the trio rejected the offers in view of the Test series against Bangladesh in August.

Earlier, Cummins had warned that players might lose interest in representing the Australian national side, given the riches on offer in the franchise leagues around the world during the Business in Sport Podcast.

CA planning to get rid of overseas player draft in BBL

The best Australian players are being offered nearly $1 million each for a major franchise tournament, which is way above what the BBL has offered them so far. To ensure that they get their deserved market price, CA is planning to get rid of the overseas player draft in the BBL.

CA’s head of cricket, James Allsopp, has stressed the importance of looking after the multi-format Australian players who bring a lot of commercial value to the game.

“The two priorities, in my mind, are making sure multi-format players that drive a lot of commercial value, and also performance value for the team, are well looked after, and we can compete with those market forces, and then also our specialist white-ball players,” Allsopp was quoted as saying by the Age.

Allsopp fears that the franchise market will drive the best players away from international cricket, which will jeopardise Australian cricket.

“They’re in pretty high demand. There’s a world now, where they can jump on the franchise circuit and make a really good living away from Australian cricket, or even away from our BBL, and that’s not going to be in the best interests of Australian cricket,” he added.

Senior pros Cummins, Starc, Travis Head and Alex Carey are unlikely to play in BBL 2027 with the tournament clashing with Australia’s Test tour of India. However, the 2027-28 season will give them a window to play in the tournament, with CA planning to give enough space between the two home series scheduled against Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

Australians deserve to be paid as much as everyone else: CA chief executive

Cummins has not played in the BBL since 2019 but remains loosely linked to the Sydney Thunder. Meanwhile, several Australian BBL players have been unhappy for some time about the money going to little-known overseas players via the draft.

Former CA chief executive Malcolm Speed has also highlighted the concern, mentioning that Australian players deserve to be paid as much as the overseas players.

“There’s a premium for international players in the BBL – they get about $100,000 more than the top Australian players. Get rid of that. The Australians deserve to be paid as much as everyone else,” Speed told SEN.

Privatisation of the BBL was expected to be the solution for the money problems for local Australian players, but so far, the stakeholders have failed to reach a consensus on plans to sell stakes in all eight BBL clubs in time to have the new investors in place for 2027-28.

CA and Cricket Victoria are set to meet on Thursday to discuss the state association’s eagerness to move ahead with selling off the Melbourne Renegades to private investors.