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As Big Bash hunting season approaches, Cricket Australia will be hoping that the three-week recruiting window will generate priceless publicity. Shame it’s such a shambles.
Who’s going where, and what they’re getting paid, are the questions likely to grab media interest, as the new domestic T20 league takes shape.
Realistically, Cricket Australia (CA) would like the window to contain as much controversy as possible.
The problem is that no matter how much publicity it gets, the Big Bash League (BBL) is still a cobbled-together idea that contradicts itself more than most religious texts.
Clearly, the idea followed on from the IPL’s success. Here were pots of money to be made, and no administrator was going to pass that up.
The new franchises were designed to mimic the IPL’s glitzy style.
So if CA wanted IPL excess, why have they salary-capped their teams at $1.2 million?
Already reports are circulating that top players could command $150,000 to $250,000. The chunk they would take out of the cap would surely result in a weakened squad.
And bear in mind that even $250,000 is vastly less than the top players in the IPL receive.
Again, if the IPL is the model, why have CA restricted their franchises to two overseas players?
The argument would be that CA wants to maximise chances for local players to develop.
But the four-player model used in the IPL has already proved a great success.
The mix of foreign stars keeps international interest and provides glamour for local audiences, while still leaving seven spots for Indian players.
A couple of injuries in Australia, and franchises will quickly be without an overseas drawcard.
If CA is really interested in developing players, why has it cut the value of Sheffield Shield and Ryobi One-Day Cup contracts in boosting up their T20 counterparts?
And why not agree to exclude all younger players – perhaps those under 22 or 23 years of age – from the salary cap?
These are the players we want competing alongside and against the game’s stars now, as they build for the future.
And of all the questions, the biggest one is, why this structure? Why tear up the existing domestic teams in order to transplant these tank-bred creations?
It doesn’t happen often, but in this case I can lay claim to being a member of a very exclusive club – people who’ve actually gone to see Victoria play a Shield match live.
Once upon a time, tens of thousands crammed into these matches.
These days, one of the gentle pleasures of summer is sitting in the vacant outer at the MCG, stretched out, eating lunch and maybe reading a book as the day washes over you.
But it’s also been desperately sad in these past few years that a champion team, with players at the peak of their powers, has so routinely played in front of a crowd of coloured seats and seagulls.
Then when the state Twenty20 came along, suddenly these players again had ten, twenty, even forty thousand people there to watch them play. It gladdened the heart. They’d earned it.
Obviously the new T20 teams have been created by CA so they can sell stakes in them – again, money first.
But this separation will only reinforce the view of the traditional state teams as unfashionable.
For a couple of seasons, the Bushrangers, Bulls, Redbacks, had an audience, and a chance to channel that into one-day and four-day crowds. Now Cricket Australia has taken it away.
Then there’s the hokeyness of the teams themselves. The names are straight out of baseball or basketball. The desperate shame is that while people in the world have nothing, others are being paid for this stuff.
And how many strategy consultants did it take to figure out the locations?
We could have a Country Vic team playing out of Geelong, they said. A Central Coast team, tapping into the Bears supporter base, maybe playing in Newcastle.
Even a West Sydney team, working with the Tigers and the new AFL Giants?
No, how about… one team everywhere we already have one. And an extra one in Melbourne and Sydney.
Genius. Just let me know if I should go for Melbourne, or Melbourne.
It’ll all depend on the uniform. “The team logos and uniforms are unlike anything Australian cricket has seen,” said CA marketing whiz Mike McKenna. “They’re bright, bold, and a departure from tradition.”
Seriously, Mike? Are the guys coming out in leotards? Fishnets? Jetpacks? Humphrey B. Bear suits?
Or… wait, did you just suggest that brightly coloured uniforms were a new innovation?
Quick, if you take the DeLorean back to 1975, you might be able to sell that one to Kerry Packer.
It’ll be a good move. Because if anyone does, he might have some ideas about how to run a cricket comp.
Follow Geoff Lemon on Twitter: @GeoffLemonSport