Cricket Australia's workload clampdown is costing IPL franchises millions and solving nothing
Three of Australia's best fast bowlers will be missing when the IPL gets underway on March 28. Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood have all been held back by Cricket Australia for workload management, and their respective franchises are left scrambling for replacements while still paying full contracts. It is a familiar argument that surfaces every year, but the 2026 edition feels more pointed than usual.
The case Cricket Australia is making
CA's position is straightforward enough. Australia have a packed international calendar that stretches through the rest of 2026 and into the 2027 ODI World Cup defence. Test tours of South Africa, India and England await. The three quicks have logged serious mileage. Starc played all five Ashes Tests, winning the Player of the Series with 31 wickets, and also featured in the Big Bash League afterwards. Cummins managed only one appearance — the third Test in Adelaide — before his back injury ended his Ashes summer. Hazlewood has been battling hamstring and Achilles problems and missed the entire Ashes series recovering. CA wants to protect these bowlers for the matches they consider most valuable: Test cricket.
On paper, it sounds reasonable. Fast bowlers break down. No one disputes that. But the details start to undermine the argument when you look more closely.
The case that does not add up
Take Starc. He has not played any competitive cricket since the Big Bash League ended in late January. By the time the IPL starts on March 28, he will have had roughly two months off. He has retired from T20 internationals, so there is no national duty pulling him away. Delhi Capitals paid 11.75 crore to retain him. He is reportedly fit. And yet CA is telling him to sit out the opening weeks of the tournament as a precaution.
Former India batter Aakash Chopra made the point bluntly on March 21, questioning why a fit player with no upcoming international commitments needs to be rested from a tournament his franchise has paid handsomely for him to play. It is a fair question that CA has not convincingly answered.
Cummins at least has a tangible reason: he is recovering from a back injury. Sunrisers Hyderabad have named Ishan Kishan as interim captain while they wait for their skipper to return. Hazlewood's body has been unreliable for months. But bundling all three under the same "workload management" banner, when the specifics differ so widely, invites scepticism about whether CA is managing individuals or imposing a blanket policy that protects their interests at the expense of everyone else.
Franchises pay, franchises lose
IPL teams spend crores on these players knowing exactly what they are getting: world-class fast bowling for a limited window. When CA cuts into that window further, the value equation breaks. Delhi are reportedly turning to Lungi Ngidi, T. Natarajan and Kyle Jamieson to fill the Starc-shaped hole in their opening matches. These are decent bowlers. They are not Mitchell Starc.
The problem extends beyond the three marquee names. Nathan Ellis of Chennai Super Kings has been ruled out of the entire season with a re-aggravated hamstring injury. Jack Edwards, signed by SRH, is also gone for the full tournament with a foot problem. The IPL opener is a week away and the list of unavailable Australians keeps growing.
Where this ends up
CA will not back down because they never do. The BCCI could push back through scheduling leverage but have so far chosen not to escalate publicly. The players themselves are stuck between the board that controls their international careers and the franchises that pay them life-changing money.
None of this is new. But every year the IPL gets bigger and the fees get higher, the tension looks less like a scheduling inconvenience and more like a structural problem that cricket's administrators are choosing not to fix. At some point, something will have to give. Whether it is 2026 or 2027 or later, the current system where national boards can unilaterally override private contracts worth millions will face a serious challenge. Until then, franchises will keep paying for bowlers they cannot play, and fans will keep wondering why.
