{"id":712866,"date":"2026-06-03T15:47:17","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T15:47:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/712866\/"},"modified":"2026-06-03T15:47:17","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T15:47:17","slug":"cricket-news-2026-pat-cummins-speaks-about-australian-future-ipl-commitments-big-bash-privatisation-plans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/712866\/","title":{"rendered":"Cricket news 2026: Pat Cummins speaks about Australian future, IPL commitments, Big Bash privatisation plans"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australian<\/a> captain Pat Cummins<\/a> has vowed to play \u201cjust about all\u201d of the side\u2019s Test matches over a gruelling 12-month period<\/a>, admitting that \u201csomething has got to give\u201d when it comes to his IPL<\/a> commitments.<\/p>\n

Cummins, who managed just one match during the Ashes<\/a> series last summer due to a back injury, is back home after featuring in the Indian T20 competition<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"ADELAIDE,<\/p>\n

Pat Cummins is gearing up for a busy Test period.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

His contract status with Cricket Australia<\/a> has also been called into question in recent times amid conjecture around the national contract list<\/a>, but Cummins has continued to reiterate his commitment to representing his country.<\/p>\n

During an interview with Nine\u2019s Today on Wednesday morning, the 33-year-old was asked about his current status and what the future looked like with away series against South Africa, India and England on the horizon.<\/p>\n

\u201cNothing\u2019s changed for me,\u201d Cummins said. <\/p>\n

\u201cNumber one [priority] is playing for Australia and I\u2019ll be doing that for hopefully a fair few more years. I do IPL but that\u2019s the only other league I\u2019ll take up.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got plenty of Test matches and the World Cup next year and I\u2019ll be right there for all of them. It\u2019s 21 Tests in less than 18 months and the ODI World Cup. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s busy, but a lot of how we\u2019ve been managing the players over the last six months has been with that in the distance. <\/p>\n

\u201cEven myself, I haven\u2019t played too much to make sure my back gets right so hopefully I can play just about all of those games.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Pat Cummins speaks about his Australian future.\u00a0Nine\/Today<\/p>\n

The chaotic period will also see the Aussies host Bangladesh in August, before squaring off against New Zealand over the home summer.<\/p>\n

With such a heavy international schedule looming, Cummins conceded he could forego playing in the IPL next season, putting the baggy green at the forefront.<\/p>\n

\u201cSomething has got to give at some stage next year and it\u2019s not going to be Test matches or an ODI World Cup,\u201d Cummins told The Sydney Morning Herald<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will make a call a lot closer and work with the franchise to see what makes sense. I\u2019ve had a couple of injuries … I don\u2019t really want to lock in anything.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe priorities for me are always the Test matches and that ODI World Cup. I dare say if I play all of India [Test series], I need some sort of break.\u201d<\/p>\n

The skipper also spoke at a press conference about the potential Big Bash merger between the Melbourne Renegades and Melbourne Stars<\/a>, with privatisation plans for the T20 competition ramping up and what it could mean for players trying to juggle the domestic league with their Test commitments. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s no secret that Victoria are pretty keen to sell one of their teams, so it makes sense … it wasn\u2019t overly surprised,\u201d he said. \u201cI think if it [privatisation] is done well, it opens up a lot of other opportunities. A lot of these problems I think you can solve and they are minor issues. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think the world has changed, you do need to update the contracting structure to keep some control on those issues. Selfishly I\u2019m the Aussie captain, so I want as many players available as possible for the Aussie set-up.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere does need to be a few tweaks to make sure the priorities stay the same.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cummins also took a cheeky swipe at one of the Melbourne-based clubs.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt also means the Stars never win a trophy, that\u2019s quite funny,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australian captain Pat Cummins has vowed to play \u201cjust about all\u201d of the side\u2019s Test matches over a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":712867,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,740,85],"class_list":["post-712866","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cricket","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/712866","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=712866"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/712866\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/712867"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=712866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=712866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=712866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}