The current border closure in Western Australia is causing Cricket Australia headaches as they attempt to resume and complete the Sheffield Shield season.
As it stands Western Australia is closed off from the rest of the country, meaning many of the players and support staff from the BBL11 champion Perth Scorchers have been unable to return to Western Australia from Melbourne.
The fixtures for the remaining games in both the Sheffield Shield and the Marsh One-Day Cup have yet to be finalised, but expected to resume over the next week.
Next round matches are expected to go ahead without WA competing.
The fixture shake-up is also set to impact the number of games played by each State. Cricket Australia is close to finalising the next batch of games, however some teams are expected to play eight matches while other may only complete seven.
For a Shield season to be constituted each team must play a minimum of seven games and play each team at least once.
Given the possibility of uneven games between States, the top two teams would need to be decided upon percentage of points won. Similar to the Test Championship, an average of points won per contest would distribute the ladder given the circumstances.
Up to this stage in the season, Victoria and New South Wales were only able to play three games, all against each other due to their own border restrictions. While the other four States have played five matches each.
Like the Shield season, the Marsh cup has been uneven to date. Teams have played between two and five games respectively.
The border situation in WA is likely to impact the amount of cricket some test stars will play before the tour of Pakistan in March.
Mitchell Marsh and Cameron Green are both likely to be included in the Pakistan squad and could face the task of playing no state cricket before they tour. When prompted on Cameron Green's return to the state on a student exemption recently, WA premier Mark McGowan responded with "I don't know who he is, sorry."
Other West Australian players earmarked for potential selection included Josh Inglis, Ashton Agar and Josh Philippe.
"There's a number of the group, obviously all the West Australian-based players are still here (in Melbourne) so we're all in the same boat" Scorchers and WA coach Adam Voges said.
"We're certainly hopeful that if the guys can't get home over the next few days then by the 5th of February, we'll be able to get home but we're fully expecting to have to quarantine when we get home."
Potential pre-departure isolation requirements could also impact the amount of state cricket other test hopefuls can play before the tour. Names such as Michael Neser, Marcus Harris, Scott Boland and Mitchell Swepson are likely to feature in just one fixture.
The squad for Australia's first Pakistan tour in 24 years is expected to be announced later this month.
The first Test begins on the 3rd of March in Karachi.
