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Can you manufacture tribalism? That’s a question Cricket Australia will find out in December this year. The Twenty20 Big Bash as we know it is dead. It will be replaced by an 8-team city based Big Bash League.
Sydney and Melbourne will have two teams, with Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide and Hobart making up the numbers.
Indian television money will eventually bankroll the competition and Cricket Australia is sure it will be a huge success.
But how do you ensure fans identify with a team straight away? And what happens if supporters don’t take to it? Will television money be enough to ensure it stays relevant?
I’ve always been of the opinion that tribalism can’t be forced.
It takes time for fans to warm to a team. They won’t go and spend money on tickets and jerseys just because you tell them it’s a good idea. Respect has to be earned, and the brash new kid on the block may not have done enough to ensure instant success.
It’s natural for people in New South Wales to want to beat any Victorian team and vice versa. Queenslanders think they’re not just taking on other states, but the world.
We’ve lived and breathed rivalries forged along state lines for so long now that it may be hard to expect people to care if the Western Sydney whatevers beat the Hobart whoseits.
A bad franchise name could just about sink a team.
Rugby League could be used as a counter-argument, but that is a completely different beast.
Those rivalries have been around for generations. South Sydney fans know what it means to beat the Roosters. Western Suburbs Magpies fans used to love to thump the Manly Sea-Eagles. It was the fibros against the Silvertails.
The two Melbourne teams will be based at the MCG and Etihad Stadium. The two Sydney teams will play out of the Sydney Cricket Ground and somewhere in the Olympic precinct, most likely ANZ Stadium.
Getting these two markets right will be the key for Cricket Australia.
Swapping Tasmania for Hobart and Adelaide for South Australia won’t be too hard to swallow. But how do fans in Melbourne decide who to go for when no clear divide exists between the two locations?
Geelong may have been a much better choice for the second Victorian outfit.
The other issue that may count against the Big Bash League is free agency.
Will fans accept Victorian skipper Cameron White turning out for Brisbane? It’s more likely he’ll play for one of the Melbourne teams, but not every state player will end up earning a contract close to home.
The Indian Premier League has been able to manufacture tribalism. That competition is the exception and not the rule.
Fans are now throwing more support behind their local franchise than the Indian national team, but I highly doubt that will be the case here. Melbourne and Brisbane aren’t Mumbai and Bangalore.
A lack of top-name stars could also hurt the gate takings.
The Australian test team will be playing India during the Big Bash and the big names may only be available for the first week or two of the competition, if at all. But as one Cricket Australia official told me yesterday, they’re hoping it’s a case of test cricket by day and Big Bash League by night.
Whether that blue-print works in reality remains to be seen.
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