Australian all-rounder Glenn Maxwell has thrown his support behind the lucrative T20 contracts offered to international cricketers, explaining that they’re a beneficial part of the game’s development.

Already known as ‘The Big Show’, Maxwell took it up a notch last week by commanding more than a million dollars in the IPL auction, when he was sold to the Kings XI Punjab IPL franchise.

It’s the second season in a row that Maxwell has collected a seven-figure IPL contract and the big-hitting right-hander was quick to quash any talk of the T20 format sending a bad message to young cricketers.

“I think it sends a good message to kids as far as telling them that they can make a career at cricket,” Maxwell said.

“Kids see that there are millions of opportunities in AFL, but only 11 in cricket. Now they know that they can earn that kind of money in a couple of weeks and maybe that starts them playing.

“They might end up in the longer format, they might enjoy cricket that way, but what it’s doing is getting kids involved.”

The dual million-dollar man will be hoping the next generation are well on their way, with his Victorian side languishing at the bottom of the Sheffield Shield table following an innings and 48-run defeat at the hands of New South Wales last week - a defeat that could have been much worse if not for Maxwell's two innings match tally of 221 runs.

“It was a pretty disappointing match all-round to tell you the truth,” he said.

“To get that many runs and have no impact on the game is pretty frustrating for the whole team.”

Despite his support for short-form cricket, Maxwell cites the KFC Big Bash League, and a lack of continuity, as a possible explanation for Victoria’s struggles.

“We’ve been jumping from format to format. We’ve had an unsettled side for a while with guys going to T20, one day cricket and in and out of the Australian teams,” he explains.

“We haven’t had a consistent group all year.”

Formats aside, Maxwell acknowledged the need for change to come from within the team.

“I think it’s time for us to stand up, take account of ourselves and just do the job,” he said.

“At this level, there are no excuses to say you can’t adjust between those formats.”

The perfect example of this resilience may lie just across the Tasman, with T20 star, and Black Caps captain, Brendon McCullum bringing up his country’s first ever triple-century in the second Test against India.

“The fact that someone can face 580 balls and still have the concentration to keep going; that’s amazing,” Maxwell said.

“Test cricket hasn’t taken away his natural flair, but he harnesses it a lot better than most players. He’s a big one that I can look up to and hopefully follow in his footsteps.”

First up for Maxwell however, is the Bushrangers’ Sheffield Shield clash against top-of-the-table South Australia at the Adelaide Oval, starting on Thursday.

Victoria will field a vastly different side to the one that found themselves 6-9 against the Blues with internationals, Aaron Finch, Dan Christian, Clint McKay and James Muirhead, missing out along with Peter Handscomb.

Rob Quiney, Michael Hill, Jon Holland, Fawad Ahmed and young quick, Jake Reed, will come into the side.

Reed is currently leading the Victorian Premier Cricket wicket-taking list (with 46), picking up 25 wickets at just over eight runs across his last four matches.

Following on from Thursday’s Shield encounter, Maxwell will leave for South Africa to work with Shane Warne ahead of three T20s and the ICC T20 World Cup in Bangladesh.

The opinions expressed here are the views of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of Cricket Australia

ICC rankings for Tests, ODIs and Twenty20

ICC Test Championship

8 February 2014
Team	Matches	Points	Rating
South Africa	30	3988	133
India	36	4213	117
Australia	39	4314	111
England	44	4713	107
Pakistan	29	2890	100
Sri Lanka	33	2953	89
West Indies	29	2516	87
New Zealand	34	2773	82
Zimbabwe	11	372	34
Bangladesh	19	359	19

ICC ODI Championship

31 January 2014
Team	Matches	Points	Rating
Australia	47	5505	117
India	63	7214	115
South Africa	44	4825	110
England	47	5102	109
Sri Lanka	56	6059	108
Pakistan	58	5873	101
New Zealand	43	4048	94
West Indies	48	4300	90
Bangladesh	26	2165	83
Zimbabwe	26	1439	55
Ireland	11	423	38
Kenya	5	103	21
Netherlands	8	48	6

ICC Twenty20 Championship

12 February 2014
Team	Matches	Points	Rating
Sri Lanka	25	2709	129
India	19	1843	123
South Africa	29	2418	123
Pakistan	40	3638	121
West Indies	24	2148	113
Australia	29	2526	110
New Zealand	29	2475	108
England	31	2522	105
Ireland	14	783	87
Bangladesh	16	853	71
Afghanistan	14	908	70
Netherlands	12	508	56
Scotland	13	545	50
Zimbabwe	16	553	46
Kenya	17	633	42
Canada	8	11	2

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The Big Show backs players' big pay days