Schutt expecting domestic reductions due to pandemic

World Cup winner Megan Schutt says she's willing to share the pain and play less games this season if it helps cricket push through the financial uncertainty created by the COVID-19 pandemic.

With Cricket Australia working on a tighter budget for the upcoming season, the prospect of shorter domestic competitions for Australia's men's and women's players has been tabled as a way of reducing costs.

Competitions like the Marsh Sheffield Shield, the men's and women's domestic one-day tournaments and the Rebel Women's Big Bash League don't drive as much direct revenue as international matches and the men's Big Bash, but they still require significant funding in order to be played.

No decisions have been made yet about the structure of the domestic season for 2020-21, but Schutt says she's open to the prospect of playing fewer games as long as women's tournaments aren't disproportionately targeted.

"There's obviously going to be reductions somewhere, there kind of has to be," she said.

"As long as we're not taking too big a hit, women specifically, I'm OK with it.

"It's about finding a balance in terms of how we can get cricket going again on the national scene and the international scene.

"Cricket around the globe is going to be affected by this and I have no doubt that women's cricket is also going to suffer. Whatever kind of season they can muster together, I'm going to be happy enough with."

Schutt added that the gains made last summer, highlighted by a world record crowd for the World Cup final in March and the first standalone WBBL that drew record broadcast audiences, leaves the women's game in a good place even if this season is reduced.

"I think we've got some real momentum coming from that World Cup win for us," she said.

"I think that left us in the spotlight before this whole crisis went down, so that's a real plus for us.

"We finished the season on a high and the success that came off the standalone WBBL last season really put us in good stead for this season."

Another unknown heading into the 2020-21 cricket season is whether or not international players will be available to play in both the men's and women's Big Bash tournaments, with global travel restrictions not certain to be lifted by the summer.

International stars like Sophie Devine and Marizanne Kapp have been a key part of the WBBL's recent success, but Schutt believes there's enough depth in Australian cricket for the tournament to still be of a high quality even if it's restricted to local players only this season.

"It'll be different, there's no lie about it," she said. "In terms of quality it might diminish a little.

"But the beauty for us is that we've been putting so much into our state programs and now us as Australian players, we're going to have a lot of time to stay here and develop our own players in our own states.

"It kind of brings a new splash into the mix of seeing these new kids that maybe haven't got the shot (in the past) because those international players were there. So it's a double-edged sword in that sense.

"But ... we've got the depth in Australian cricket, we've got the best domestic system in the world, so I don't think there's any reason why that won't be a quality product still."