New Cricket Australia chief executive Todd Greenberg and chair Mike Baird have told their state association owners the Big Bash League should be the second best Twenty20 tournament in the world, behind only the mighty Indian Premier League.
According to three senior cricket sources, speaking on condition of anonymity because negotiations are confidential, Baird and Greenberg set this lofty goal for the BBL as they commissioned a fresh report on the competition to state association chairs on Monday night.
Mitch Owen celebrates his whirlwind hundred for the Hurricanes in this year’s BBL final.Credit: Getty Images
To be undertaken by Boston Consulting Group, the project will explore both privatisation and expansion as possible pathways for the BBL to grow in value and audience reach.
After expanding too much, too soon, the BBL was reduced from 14 games per team to 10 and has been trending back up in the past couple of years. But it is now considered a second-tier league behind those of India, England, South Africa and even the UAE, according to a range of industry figures consulted by this masthead.
BCG had previously consulted to CA and the states about the global cricket landscape, which is increasingly fragmented by franchise leagues competing with international cricket. CA was contacted for comment.
Views on expansion are mixed, with opposition within New South Wales and Victoria to Canberra’s bid for a team. New Zealand and Singapore are two other potential venues for BBL expansion teams. The review’s findings are expected to be reported in September.
There has been an eagerness to explore privatisation and expansion of the BBL for some time, although the process has been given some pause by delays in the sale of eight city-based clubs in the Hundred competition in England.
Prospective investors in those teams, who paid almost $2 billion in total for minority stakes in clubs such as the London Spirit and Trent Rockets, have stalled on finalising their sales over a range of issues, including their desire to see the broadcast rights to the tournament unbundled from the rest of the ECB’s matches.
That’s an awkward prospect for the ECB, given their current bundled deal with Sky – with a Hundred carve-out for the BBC – runs until 2028. CA, meanwhile, are about to enter the second season of a seven-year deal with Foxtel and Seven that encompasses the BBL and international cricket.
Another consideration for BCG will be the unique place of the BBL in how its matches are intertwined with the international program – no more closely than during the Boxing Day and New Year period where 10 days of Test cricket are followed by BBL games in prime time.
Other, privately-owned leagues around the world have their own exclusive window during which no other cricket is played in the host country, meaning the best homegrown talent can play a full part in the tournament.
Showtime: Glenn Maxwell.Credit: Getty
BBL clubs would likely fetch higher prices if sold to private investors on the condition that the league is played after Test matches conclude in early January, meaning the likes of captain Pat Cummins, his deputy Travis Head, Mitchell Starc and Steve Smith would all be available.
However the BBL’s Australian broadcasters favour the current schedule for how it dominates the peak months of the summer holiday season. The BBL grew rapidly after its inception in 2011, but an expansion in 2018, plus the Covid-19 pandemic, saw its crowds and value decline for some years before it bounced back with the current 10-game model.
Ranking the domestic leagues
- Indian Premier League
- South Africa T20
- England, The Hundred
- UAE International League T20
- Australia, Big Bash League
- Pakistan Super League
- USA, Major League Cricket
- Caribbean Premier League
- Bangladesh Premier League
- New Zealand Super Smash
- Lanka Premier League
Greenberg and Baird flew to Harare this week for International Cricket Council meetings, with two-division Test cricket, the future of ODI matches and the points system for the next cycle of the World Test Championship all set to be discussed.
In parallel, talks are set to continue around a review of the international calendar by the World Cricketers Association, which has recommended the implementation of calendar windows and more socialised sharing of revenue.
There will also be talks – at least informally – about a proposed new global T20 league to be bankrolled by Saudi Arabia. None of these concepts have much chance of progressing unless India’s powerful BCCI and the new chair of the ICC, Jay Shah, can be convinced of their usefulness.
Last month, the JioStar vice-chairman Uday Shankar lambasted the ICC as the “East India company of cricket” because most of its member nations were primarily concerned with taking money out of India. Broadcaster JioStar, which holds the rights to ICC events in India, was created by a merger between Disney Star and Reliance, India’s largest company.
“The best service that someone like the new chairman of the ICC can do is to ensure that he is its last chairman,” Shankar said at the Indian Express Idea Exchange. “A disproportionate share of talent comes from India. An overwhelming share of revenue comes from India. And all of it is going everywhere else.”
