Big Bash Expansion

BASH LOOKS TO GET BIGGER

More BBL teams on way, hints CA chief.

Daniel Brettig.

Cricinfo.

Monday, 13 February 2017.

PTG 2048-10376.

James Sutherland, Cricket Australia’s (CA) chief executive, has given a strong indication that the Big Bash League (BBL) is set for further expansion, dangling the carrot of a Twenty20 team for Victoria's Geelong region by way of encouraging a healthy crowd for that city’s Kardinia Park's international debut on Sunday when Australia plays Sri Lanka in a Twenty20 International.

Located around an hour's drive south-west of Melbourne, Geelong has played host to BBL practice fixtures in recent times, and will step up further as a venue when Australia's makeshift T20 team hosts Sri Lanka in the second of three matches - preluded by an encounter between the Australia and New Zealand women's teams.

While Kardinia Park is likely to feature at least one BBL match next season as the number of matches expands, Sutherland spoke in terms of "when" not "if" in response to questions about the addition of a Geelong T20 side in future. "I know there's a group here that's very keen on continuing to develop the ideas around that”, Sutherland, a lifelong supporter of the Geelong Australian Rules Football team, said.

"We're expanding the BBL next year in terms of number of matches. I'm not quite sure how long it will be before we expand the number of teams (PTG 2033-10294, 28 January 2017). But I do know that when we do, Geelong will be a very strong candidate”, said Sutherland.  "We've seen practice matches for the BBL down here and we've seen good crowds here before. But this is really the first major test - to have an international match here. We know there's a lot of enthusiasm, culturally cricket is really strong down here, but I'd like to see on the weekend just how the community supports big-time cricket coming here”.

CA's plans for the BBL have been carefully modulated over time, with the governing body conscious of not growing the number of teams too quickly in order to avoid the fates of other sports such as football, rugby league and basketball that grew the number of teams in Australian competitions before having to cut them back as local markets could not sustain them. Two extra matches per team next season is an early step in the expansionist direction.

"The expansion of the [BBL] in number of games does present an opportunity”, Sutherland said. "I think we'll have a bit of an indicator on Sunday to see the response of the local community and from Melbourne and other regional areas around here to see how much they embrace international cricket here, and who knows, it might well be [BBL] here next season as well”.

Cricket's calendar, both international and domestic, is set for considerable change over the next few years as a result of the competing forces of changes to the structure of Tests, One Day Internationals and Twenty20 internationals and also the continued expansion of T20 leagues around the world. England and South Africa have unveiled new T20 tournaments in recent times, with the latter's to be scheduled in November and December immediately prior to the BBL (PTG 2045-10365, 11 February 2017).

At the same time Sutherland has been selling the concept of a Test match league currently under discussion at the International Cricket Council. He has floated the possibility that numerous former certainties of the Australian home summer, like the Boxing Day and New Year's Test matches, may no longer be guaranteed for Melbourne and Sydney as teams find themselves facing different obligations.  "I'd like to say they are [quarantined] but they're not totally guaranteed”, Sutherland told ABC Radio. "I think we would like to see it unfold in such a way that we can secure those matches but it's actually a very congested schedule through the traditional Australian summer”.

04/02/17
A New Twenty 20 Tournament

Cricket South Africa has announced that it will launch, in the latter period of 2017, a new T20 Tournament. The competition will be similar in format to the eight team formats of IPL, BBL and CPL.


CSA hope that with a potential financially successful enterprise, funds will be available the stem the flood of Kolpaking Proteas out of the country and that more than just the current Internationals will be able to earn a living from the sport.

The current Ram-Slam competition will continue in 2017, which will make interesting viewing with bearing in mind ECB plans for at the end of the decade. 

When will the world reach saturation point with T20 tournaments?

In 2020 will the English version, in tandem with Blast, result in the strangulation of the golden chicken or might it have already happened by then?