Global T20 superstar Dan Christian has echoed new Sydney Sixers teammate Mitchell Starc's concerns around the restrictive nature of this season's upcoming Big Bash League.
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BBL teams will be confined to mini-hubs for at least the first half of the season, allowing players to train and play but with severely limited social freedoms.
Starc has spoken out about the physical and mental toll bubble conditions can create - a sentiment shared by Christian who has only recently returned from England where he helped lead Nottinghamshire to a title win in the T20 Blast.
"I'm not sure exactly what the hub's going to look like, it certainly seems like it's going to be pretty difficult, just from chatting to some of the guys who have been over in the IPL and then the Australian guys that were in England," Christian said.
"It sounds like it was pretty tough work. Player welfare I think is going to be really important.
"Whether that means some guys missing games and having to leave the hub and spend some time with family, who knows. I'm sure it'll be something that CA [Cricket Australia] and the ACA [Australian Cricketers Association] are working really hard on."
Players in this year's Indian Premier League, which concludes this week, were subject to oppressive bubble conditions throughout the tournament with some franchises reportedly not allowing their stars to leave the team hotel between matches.
Virus protocols were more relaxed in England, but Christian and his Notts teammates were still required to undertake same-day car travel to each fixture.
The 37-year-old is in Canberra this week, captaining the ACT/NSW Country Comets in four matches against NSW Metro. Christian is up against some of his new Sixers teammates including former Test player Stephen O'Keefe.
Three T20s and a 50-over match are being played at Phillip Oval to help fill the void created by COVID-19 which has forced this summer's second XI competition to be scrapped.
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NSW Metro won the first T20 on Tuesday by six runs despite two wickets from Weston Creek paceman Djali Bloomfield, before making it two wins in a row with a thumping eight-wicket triumph in the afternoon, thanks largely to Jack Edwards' unbeaten 86. The two sides will play a 50-over match on Wednesday.
"It's actually the first time I've represented Country, I was saying to the boys last night it's something that I'm really proud of having grown up in Narrandera," Christian said.
"We never really had the scouts go past the Narrandera cricket ground down there so I didn't get to play any of that stuff as a kid. To be able to represent where I'm from it's a nice feeling."
James Buckley
James is a Queanbeyan boy enjoying his second stint at the Canberra Times, more than eight years on from his first. In between he's traveled the world, and spent time covering sport in Sydney.
James is a Queanbeyan boy enjoying his second stint at the Canberra Times, more than eight years on from his first. In between he's traveled the world, and spent time covering sport in Sydney.
