Marsh & Short’s SA20 2027 Availability Issue
Cricket Australia has announced that Mitch Marsh and Matt Short’s No Objection Certificates will be provided only once they have completed their entire BBL|16 responsibilities.
Neither Perth Scorchers nor Adelaide Strikers players will be cleared to travel to South Africa for the SA20 until their respective seasons are concluded.
The announcement comes after Marsh and Short were signed as marquee players for the 2019 SA20 season, with Marsh moving to Sunrisers Eastern Cape and Short to Pretoria Capitals.
It will be the first time either Australian has participated in the South African competition. Notably, Marsh’s SA20 franchise is owned by the same company that operates his Hundred side, Sunrisers Leeds.
When can Marsh and Short really join their respective SA20 teams?
The SA20 begins on January 17, 2027, the evening after the Adelaide Strikers host the Perth Scorchers in the final round of the BBL|16 regular season.
Adding to the scheduling difficulties, Sunrisers Eastern Cape and Pretoria Capitals are scheduled to meet in the first game, which will be played in Gqeberha, a site that generally takes at least 20 hours to reach from Adelaide via many connecting flights.
Both players can only be eligible for the opening match if their clubs are eliminated before the finals, which are set to take place from January 19 to 26. A Perth Scorchers representative affirmed that Marsh would be with the team until the end of the season, regardless of the stage of the tournament.
Marsh has a contract with the reigning BBL winners until the end of BBL|17, having signed a three-year extension in 2025, while Short is with the Strikers until 2028.
Tim David, Marcus Stoinis, Matthew Wade, Ashton Turner, and Mitch Owen have all represented SA20 franchises in recent seasons after finishing their BBL careers, setting a strong precedence for this type of sequential release.
What form will Marsh and Short bring to these back-to-back competitions?
Marsh arrives with a lot of momentum. During the previous BBL season, his 360 runs, together with Finn Allen’s 466 runs, helped the Scorchers win a record-extending sixth men’s title.
He then scored 563 runs at an average of 43 for Lucknow Super Giants in the Indian Premier League and has since scored 290 runs in five innings for Sunrisers Leeds in the Hundred, but his T20 World Cup career was cut short by injury.
Short has been equally prolific across all formats. For Welsh Fire in the Hundred, he scored 60 not out and 71 in consecutive innings. Prior to that, he finished his Major League Cricket season with San Francisco in spectacular fashion, scoring 94 not out and 121 not out in the playoffs on consecutive occasions.
