Here we are, at last. Nirvana.
Test cricket’s out of the way, not that there was much of it to get in the way.
There’s not a one-dayer in sight. The last one reportedly was in Melbourne in November. The next will be in Afghanistan. Not that it matters; if there was one here now, it would be behind a paywall anyway.
The Big Bash League: eye-catching.Credit:Getty
The Sheffield Shield was booted to the sidelines ages ago. It is now being taught in history classes.
The table has been cleared. Cricket has been cleansed of any unnecessary cricket. From now until when the Australian team goes to India, it’s all Bash, Bash, Bash. We’re all free now to spend the rest of cricket’s peak season jamming fast food buckets on our heads.
Rather than put their feet up, all bar two of the Australian team have redistributed themselves among the BBL clubs. This is the promised land, or at least the land Seven thought it was promised and took Cricket Australia to court to recover. CA got the Seven treatment.
Josh Philippe in action for the Sixers against the Renegades.Credit:Getty Images
So clear air for clearing boundaries it is. This is not to death-ride the new arrangements. If this is how people want their cricket from now on, this is how it will be. Globally, administrators and telecasters think it is. Increasingly, so do players. New T20 leagues are popping up like mushrooms, numbering at least 12 active around the world.
Two are being inaugurated this week, the International League T20 in the UAE and the SA20 in South Africa (whose new clubs are all subsidiaries of IPL clubs). Fifteen mercenaries who appeared in the first half of this season’s BBL have hauled off to play in these start-up comps. Some Australians will follow at BBL’s end.
Freelancer Trent Boult in action for the Stars.Credit:Getty Images
So the merry-go-round spins. There can be no doubt that the BBL is commanding greater attention this year than for many preceding it. Crowds and ratings affirm it. Now it has the stage to itself.
Perhaps as soon as next season, the powers-that-be intend to exploit this, pruning the season so that instead of tailing off into February, the finals are played in January, in the school holidays, climaxing in competition with the Australian Open. A serendipitous side-effect will be to lessen the overlap with other leagues, so widening player availability.
It’s onwards and upwards. But is it?
The strength of this new focus on the BBL is also its fundamental weakness: it is the only available cricket. Seven expects Australia’s Test stars will supercharge the BBL. Some might. But the reality is that Test stars are not always and naturally white-ball stars.
Marnus Labuschagne is the No.1 ranked Test batsman in the world, but he has only ever played one T20 international, has never had an IPL contract and once was dropped by Brisbane Heat. Steve Smith is building an all-time great Test career, but did not get an IPL contract last year and did not register for one this year.
Meantime, only three of the top 10 run-makers in this season’s BBL even have played Test cricket, and only one of the top 10 wicket-takers. It’s a different game. This is a different time.
Marnus Labuschagne in a rare appearance for Brisbane Heat.Credit:AAP
With a Test tour of India imminent, and being who they are, Labuschagne and Smith might have preferred a first-class game or two now, or to bat all day in a club game. In Sydney, the nominal second spinner for India, Ashton Agar, looked like he needed a first-class game now.
But there are none. There is not even a one-dayer. To the extent that one-day cricket is relevant now, this has to be its season. No longer.
As T20 expands, other forms atrophy. As battered South Africa left Australia to get home in time for the SA20, it dawned on the rest of the world that South Africa will not play another series of more than two Tests until late 2026.
Meantime, former star all-rounder Lance Klusener had pulled out of the running for the job of coach of the country’s white-ball teams, preferring to concentrate on so-called franchise cricket. As it happens, yet another T20 competition is scheduled to come online this year, in the US.
Marcus Stoinis, a Melbourne Star.Credit:Getty Images
Some South Africans wonder what is to become of their national team. It was ranked No.3 in the world a moment ago.
Back to the Showgrounds. Roll up, roll up, tonight and every night. It’s indisputable that the BBL is eye-catching (it’s all catching). Engagement with it is constant, but attachment to it remains shallow.
Jake Fraser-McGurk of the Renegades takes a spectacular catch.Credit:Getty Images
You have to suspect that is down to its permanent state of flux. Players come, players go: half a season here, four matches there, until a country call-up arrives or – more commonly – another league season begins. Some players have a dozen clubs already on their CVs. Literally, it’s a circus.
As T20 grows, and a swelling body of freelancers follows the money, this phenomenon will become more acute. It’s exciting for players, but it makes it harder for fans to identify with their clubs the way they identify with, say, football clubs. It makes for a fuzzy image. It holds the BBL at the level of background music on a summer night.
Now, though, there is nothing in the foreground. The BBL is the only show in town. If T20 is the future, it has arrived. But is it ready and ripe for seizing?
