I enjoyed my time in the IPL but playing for Australia will always sit at the top: Mitchell Starc

Starc admits, his love for the game is not just for the money and why he rates wearing the baggy green cap over playing franchise cricket around the globe.

“There’s nothing I love more in cricket than to sit back with my teammates at the end of a Test win and reflect on the success we’ve had that week,” he said.

“To be able to pull on the baggy green with a lot of my close mates, guys I’ve grown up in the game with. I mean, franchise cricket is great, but you can be bought or sold or traded in 12 months, whereas this is an opportunity that I’ve been fortunate enough to have over 10 years now,” he added.

Starc belived Test cricket is going through an interesting moment with the talk of franchise cricket giving 12-month contract to the players.

“There’s more and more franchise cricket, and more and more talk about 12-month franchise contracts, where it would potentially be like football, where you have an international window, or you need clearance from your club to go and play international sport,” he said.

Starc still feels the young generation will give Test cricket more value than the easy money in the franchise cricket.

“The traditionalist in me still hopes there is a generation of boys and girls who want to represent their country in Test cricket. But the easy money is in franchise cricket, it’s the fast track to notoriety,” he said.

Starc has played two seasons in the IPL for Royal Challengers Bangalore in 2014-15 and says he would love to play in the tournament again.

“I’d certainly love to play in the IPL again, but my goal for a long time has been to be at my best for Australia, no matter the format,” he said.