Season start confirmed, NSW and Victoria to wait

NSW and Victoria won't be part of the opening stages of the men's domestic season, which Cricket Australia confirmed today will begin in Adelaide on September 22.

The domestic summer of cricket was originally scheduled to begin this weekend with matches in Perth and Melbourne, but the ongoing lockdowns in Sydney and Melbourne and resultant border closures have forced significant changes.

At this stage, only the details for two Marsh One-Day Cup games and two Marsh Sheffield Shield games have been confirmed; South Australia will take on Western Australia in both formats in Adelaide between September 22 and 27 before Queensland face Tasmania in Brisbane from September 28 until October 3.

All four matches will be live streamed on cricket.com.au, the CA Live app and Kayo Sports.

In a statement, CA said, "further fixtures will be confirmed as soon as possible".

News Corp reported this week that matches featuring NSW and Victoria could be played in the Northern Territory as early as next month, which would require players and coaches from those two states to quarantine for two weeks before games can begin.

CA has also confirmed that the Women's National Cricket League, which was scheduled to begin later this month, will instead get underway in December following the Weber WBBL.

"Like all sports, we cannot rule out challenges created by the global pandemic at some stage in the season," said Cricket Australia's Head of Cricket Operations and Scheduling, Peter Roach.

"However, the lessons of the 2020-21 summer have prepared us well to be agile and adapt as required to deliver the best possible season for the players and fans.

"We thank the States and Territories for their support and understanding through this process and are delighted to be making a start to the season. We will build out further fixtures in the coming weeks and announce them once finalised.

"We also thank our fantastic partners Marsh, Foxtel and Kayo for their ongoing support of domestic cricket."

The confirmation of the start of the men's season is good news for six members of Australia's T20 World Cup squad, who should be able to play at least one white-ball game before they depart for the UAE.

Mitch Marsh, Ashton Agar, Josh Inglis (all WA), Kane Richardson (South Australia), Matthew Wade (Tasmania) and Mitchell Swepson (Queensland) should all be free to play for their states before they fly out in early October, a boost given the Aussies currently have no games scheduled before the World Cup apart from a handful of warm-up matches immediately prior to the tournament.

Seven other members of Australia's World Cup squad – Glenn Maxwell, Steve Smith, David Warner, Josh Hazlewood, Marcus Stoinis, Dan Christian and Nathan Ellis – will also get some game time in the second half of the IPL, which begins on September 19.

But with NSW locked down, the Blues quartet of Pat Cummins, Mitch Starc, Adam Zampa and Daniel Sams seemingly won't play any games before the World Cup warm-ups begin, while injured skipper Aaron Finch (Victoria) would also have been prevented from playing if he'd been fully fit.

The full revised domestic schedules for the Marsh Sheffield Shield, Marsh Cup and WNCL will be released in due course.

Confirmed matches

Sep 22: Marsh Cup, South Australia v Western Australia, Karen Rolton Oval

Sep 24-27: Marsh Sheffield Shield, South Australia v Western Australia, Karen Rolton Oval

Sep 28-Oct 1: Marsh Sheffield Shield, Queensland v Tasmania, Ian Healy Oval

Oct 3: Marsh Cup, Queensland v Tasmania, Ian Healy Oval

All four matches will be live streamed on cricket.com.au, the CA Live app and Kayo Sports