Fast bowler Mitchell Johnson is going to skip the upcoming season of the Big Bash League to rest his body and spend time with his family. Johnson's retirement from international cricket last month had raised his prospects of playing the BBL for the very first time for his home club and defending champions Perth Scorchers.

"[It] is a real shame because I think everyone in Australia was hoping he'd play," Scorchers coach Justin Langer told radio station 6PR on Thursday. "And I really respect where he's at. He retired for a reason and he won't be playing."

Since the BBL was going to run parallel to the Australian international home schedule, the Scorchers were hoping to get Johnson on board in the absence of Adam Voges, Mitchell Marsh and Shaun Marsh and Nathan Coulter-Nile who are part of the Test squad to play West Indies. Johnson's management, however, said he would explore the option of playing the BBL next summer.

Head of the BBL Anthony Everard was confident that despite the absence of a few international names, the quality of the fifth season of the BBL would surpass that of the previous four seasons.

"We would have been delighted to have a player of Mitch's quality involved," Everard told cricket.com.au. "We're disappointed that he won't be involved this year, however the quality of players we have this season is the best we've ever had, both in terms of domestic players and overseas players. To have guys like Brad Haddin and Shane Watson playing for the first time in a meaningful way is fantastic. And then there's the internationals, the likes of [Kevin] Pietersen, [Chris] Gayle, [Kumar] Sangakkara, [Jacques] Kallis - I could go on. The quality is the best we've had in four seasons so there's still a lot of look forward to for fans."

The Scorchers have played all four finals of the BBL so far and won the last two tournaments. Their squad will be strengthened by England allrounder David Willey, who impressed in his first international season as a limited-overs player and will miss the ongoing England Lions tour of the UAE.

"You can just start to feel it heating up," Langer said. "We've got a good crew of players. Again, the expectations are very high, and that's good. A lot will depend on who's playing for Australia and if we can get our best guys on the park."

The Scorchers open their season on December 21 against the Adelaide Strikers at home.

(espncricinfo)