Big Bash League: An outsider's opinion

Earlier this week, a bit of online reading had me stumble upon the newly created world of the Twenty20 Big Bash League.

Being a casual cricket fan, I had little knowledge on the domestic game aside from the traditional six state-based teams used in four-dayers, one-dayers and the old Twenty20 league.

When, with some deeper digging, I uncovered the names and colours of the eight new city-based teams, I was shocked
that someone at Cricket Australia has probably neglected the marketing budget.

Melbourne Stars? Adelaide Strikers? Perth Scorchers? What kind of names are those?

Heck, even some of the others are strange. I mean, I know that the word Hobart starts with an H, but how often does Tasmania get Hurricanes?

Not to mention the colours used for the teams.

The Brisbane Heat would have to wear red or orange right? Some kind of heat-related colour, surely.

No, they wear a Teal uniform, perhaps the least fire-associated colour there is.

Then, there is the Melbourne Stars, also wearing green, because it’s not like stars would be better represented by orange or yellow.

The Renegades, Hurricanes and Strikers all have decent colours, not that anyone knows what a Striker is anyway.

Then there are the Sydney teams, the Thunder (Electric Green) and the Sixers (bright pink).

I’m glad I don’t live in Sydney because I don’t think I have many pairs of shorts that would go well with a brand new Thunder or Sixers top.

It all seems like it’s been a little mismanaged. You would think that with a brand-new league and brand new teams, Cricket Australia would have come up with some better ideas for the founding teams.

I can understand wanting to move away from the old state teams, but ditching four of the six, state team colours was a bad move.

Why not just have a navy-blue team, a red team, a green team, an orange team, a black team, a purple team, and then maybe one or two ‘out-there’ kind of colours.

With the naming of the teams, why not the Brisbane Braves or the Perth Panthers, perhaps the Sydney Spectres, or the Melbourne Mustangs?

All the team issues aside, the biggest problem with the Big Bash League may be just that, the name of the league.

If they want to move away from the old league, why copy the old name and leave it without any change or improvement. Uninspiring and devoid of a new feel, “Big Bash League” sounds more like a temporary name than a professional sporting league title.

Perhaps the only really promising thing for the league is that with the state teams removed, it’s now possible to have expansion take place, for smaller cities and regional areas to have a shot at a team.

Perhaps now, the people of Far North Queensland (Cairns, Townsville), regional New South Wales (Wollongong Central Coast, Newcastle), Gold Coast, Canberra and maybe one day, even the Northern Territory will be able to support their very own national league cricket team.

Maybe, we could even absorb a few of New Zealand’s teams into the fold.

Here’s to hoping that they do move towards expansion, and pretty soon as well.

Despite all the issues and all the improvements that could be made, true fans of the game and casual followers like me should still look forward to what will no doubt be an exciting new era for Australian Twenty20 cricket.