Cricket Australia (CA) denied No-Objection Certificate to many of its cricketers for the newly-launched UAE’s ILT20 in order to rope them into the country’s Big Bash League (BBL 12). Both the T20 leagues will clash in terms of schedule since Australia’s BBL starts in December 2022, and ILT20 1 is scheduled from January 2023.
The scheduling clash makes it impossible for a player to feature in both T20 leagues at once. David Warner’s case is one of the examples. The batter, with a CA contract, has not played BBL since 2013-14. Since multiple teams in ILT20 are owned by franchises’ owners of the Indian Premier League (IPL), Warner’s Delhi-based franchise was looking to rope him in its ILT20 team, Dubai Capitals.
Since ILT20 is going to be the world’s second-most money-rich league after the IPL, players from all across the world wish to grab contracts. However, CA kept the negotiations not to get rid of Warner, and offered him a hefty contract for BBL 2022-23. Warner can no more participate in the first edition of ILT20 and will represent Sydney Thunder in the country’s T20 league.
Now, Lynn’s case is a bit different. The explosive batter neither had a BBL contract nor a CA contract. He was already hired by Gulf Giants. Since CA was uncertain about providing NOC to Lynn, it resulted in a potential impasse with the board.
CA had stated,
“Lynn does not hold a CA or State contract and has not done so since his last Queensland Cricket contract expired in June 2019. Each matter regarding a release for overseas competitions is subject to the individual’s circumstances. Our guiding principle remains the prioritisation and protection of Australia’s domestic summer of cricket and the interests of the game overall.”
However, when the news of Lynn’s contract with ILT20’s Giants were viral, one of the team’s officials narrated that they would come to a cordial agreement to manage him in both tournaments, BBL and ILT20, along with his NOC.
According to Cricbuzz, an official of the ILT20 franchise said,
“Hopefully we will be able to manage something,”
Although according to CA policy, a player is not allowed to play foreign tournaments when Australian cricket is underway, following the cordial agreement of two parties, Lynn will now be the only Australian cricketer to feature in both tournaments. He will be released from BBL on January 20th to represent IPL-sponsored Giants in UAE’s T20 league. He will don Adelaide Strikers’ jersey in 11 games.
“Cricket Australia welcomes the Adelaide Strikers’ signing of Chris Lynn, the highest run-scorer in BBL history, for 11 out of 14 games in the upcoming BBL|12 season. He will be released from 20 January to participate in UAE’s ILT20 competition from that date,”
