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A Bigger Bash is just over-fattening the golden goose

27th January, 2017
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The Sydney Thunder celebrate claiming BBL 05. (AAP Image/Mal Fairclough)
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27th January, 2017
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The Big Bash League, by anyone’s set of standards, has been a resounding success since its launch in 2011.

Its quickfire season of quickfire games has allowed fans to immerse themselves in a cricketing feast without it becoming stale.

Add in free-to-air coverage allowing fans to watch a game of cricket just about every night of the school holidays, and there’s little wonder the competition has been so bulletproof.

But with the success has come criticism, particularly around the sheer volume of cricket being played at the moment. Not only do we have a summer of supporting the national team in home Tests, one-dayers and Twenty20s from November through to the end of February, there’s another entire tournament every other day of the week.

The beauty of the Big Bash – or one of them, anyway – is it goes exactly as long as it needs to, and no longer.

Or at least it did, anyway.

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Today’s announcement that there will be an extra eight games during BBL07 is as sure a sign of how valuable the tournament is to Cricket Australia, and no-one should blame them for wanting to cash in with the next TV deal up for grabs.

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But the expansion is a mistake.

The Big Bash currently comes and goes in the space of just over a month, giving fans enough time to engage with it before its ‘hit and giggle’ nature renders the competition dull and gimmicky.

Another week or so of games – CA is yet to announce how exactly they’ll fit in the extra matches – opens up the risk of fans becoming bored with the spectacle.

There are logistical issues which also make the move a risky one. The biggest crowds often flock to the Big Bash after Christmas – take the SCG, for example, where the Sixers’ lone pre-Christmas match attracted a crowd of around 20,000, compared to two of 30,000 and one of just under 40,000 for their three other games – so moving the start of the season forward offers no bonafide benefit.

Push the finals back, however, and suddenly the tournament’s crescendo falls outside the attendance utopia that is the holidays. The number of parents willing to let their kids stay up late to go to – or even watch on TV – a Big Bash game with school the next morning will no doubt fall sharply.

For a competition which has capitalised on its family-friendly reputation absolutely brilliantly, this cannot be understated.

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Then there’s the poor timing of the expansion. That it comes at the same time as TV negotiations are ramping up is no coincidence, but it means the expanded competition gets its first run while a home Ashes series is being played.

Of all the summers of cricket in Australia, that is the one where the smorgasbord of international cricket – ODIs included – will provide a stern test for the Big Bash.

Cricket’s powers that be need look no further to America and the 16-game NFL season – the most attended sport in the world by average crowd, as well as the holder of a neat little $4.25 billion broadcast deal – for proof that less is more.

For a competition devoid of any history which demands the loyalty of fans, the Big Bash would do well to remember that.

Unfortunately, that looks to have been forgotten already.

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