I enjoyed last year’s Big Bash and generally enjoy the Twenty20 format. It is nice to be able to go to a game after work or on a weekend evening and be able to watch the whole game. It’s not a massive investment of time and sometimes that counts for a lot.
Test cricket is the Rolls Royce of cricket formats, but it is still nice to take the convertible for a spin sometimes.
My problem is that I am really struggling to get behind my local Big Bash team, the Adelaide Strikers in this case. Over the years of watching the Redbacks I have developed an attachment and loyalty to them, I feel as if I know them although I have never actually met any of them.
I have my favourite players in the team, been there for the wins and the losses and feel like I am a small part of the Redbacks family. They are ‘my’ team.
After last year’s Big Bash I was looking forward to this season’s event. But then Cricket Australia threw a spanner into the works. They replaced a successful Big Bash format with what appears to be the IPL’s third cousin twice removed.
Sure, there is a team based in Adelaide but it’s not the Redbacks, it is some other team that I am expected to magically transfer my support to. But I feel, at best, ambivalent towards them, even though there are a number of Redback players in the squad.
Why?
For starters, these guys are wearing blue. Blue. That has always been a colour that one of the opponents wear. It might not seem like a big thing but it is like the feeling I would have if I found out that Coopers Brewery were going to stop making beer so that they can concentrate on the soft drink market.
It makes it even more difficult to accept a new team when it does not even look like the one it is replacing.
Then there is the issue of the players. Five of the 18 players in the Strikers squad are not from South Australia and all of those five are probably going to start each game so the starting 11 might only have 6 South Australians in it.
The other players are from Victoria, Tasmania, Queensland and overseas, am I honestly expected to start supporting them all of a sudden when up until now they have been considered the enemy?
If they were joining the Redbacks and making some kind of a commitment to South Australian cricket then I would be more accepting of them but after the Big Bash they are simply going back to their respective states and countries.
Then there are players that I particularly enjoy watching but who have now signed for other teams, Daniel Christian being a good example. Thanks to the free-agency system of the Big Bash he has decided to play for Brisbane Heat.
Does that mean I should now support that team? Not going to happen.
Messing around with people’s teams seldom goes down well, there is always the possibility of alienating those supporters. Expansion in rugby league is a hot topic at the moment and there have been a few articles on The Roar that have suggested ways of dealing with it.
I understand the need for future expansion of the Big Bash but isn’t there a better way of doing it? Like keeping the existing teams and adding teams from Geelong, Darwin, North Queensland or wherever and use a mixture of their local players and fringe players from other states who are not getting playing time where they are.
Supporters from those new areas will probably not have the problem that I am having about identifying with their new team because they don’t have a team currently in the Big Bash.
At a push I am willing to accept that teams be allowed 1 (not the current 2) international player, it does give the Big Bash a slightly different flavour and adds a bit more interest.
I realize that some people do not care about any of this in the slightest and they will jump on board with this whole new concept with no problem but the Strikers simply do not feel like my team, they are just a bunch of guys using the Adelaide Oval as their home ground for the Big Bash.
I tried to get excited about the IPL when it was launched but could not connect with it and I think the new Big Bash is going to be similar.
I’m just glad that I don’t live in Melbourne or Sydney because all of this would be made worse by the fact that I would have two ‘local’ teams to choose from.
Russ
Guest
Rough Conduct, while I understand your perspective, and agree about the trashing of traditional team names, you just aren't the demographic for this competition, for two reasons: 1) Cricket has saturated television. The only way to make more money from cricket on tv is to create more content amongst a non-traditional audience. Not you. 2) Cricket gets poor (nay, shocking) attendances by domestic league standards. The BBL aims to make money via attendances because they make more from tickets, and there is more cricket in toto in a domestic league, than with a touring national side. That means playing in the biggest cities, and attracting people in those cities willing to go out for an evening's entertainment. Again, not you. If the BBL is successful it might expand to North Queensland, Canberra, Newcastle etc. But its aim is to create a revenue source that isn't dependent on India and England touring every four years. Subsidising teams in country locations with small grounds (away from home for most players too, remember) isn't working towards that goal.
HardcorePrawn
Guest
"once you are outside the primary colours (plus black) you are out of colour choices for a sporting team." How about white? (England, Real Madrid, Leeds United...) Or green? (South Africa, Celtic, Ireland, Mexico...) Or purple? (Fiorentina, even the Wimbledon tennis Club has purple on its motifs) Brown (Hawthorn, and um... Coventry City's infamous 1970s away strip). You could even make a point that gold & green aren't primary colours either. I don't think the colours themselves are a problem, more that they bear no relation to the cities that they're meant to represent in this rather ridiculous competition.
formeropenside
Guest
I'm a Queenslander, and even a Brisbane boy, but I dont care about a "Brisbane" team playing in ... some green/blue shade - teal or something? If you have to use a colour like "teal" for sporting kit - I mean seriously, once you are outside the primary colours (plus black) you are out of colour choices for a sporting team. Its stupid and I may watch it on TV but dont care. On the upside, isn't Queensland doing well in the Shield (and one-day cup too)!
Lolly
Guest
It's such a shame. I've been a West Australian fan since I was a kid and got used to the Warriors name. But somehow just can't get my head around the Scorchers. The whole tournament appears to be a bit naff, but we'll see, I might get enthrused despite low expectations. One of the problems is that the Shield season has been very exciting - proved by the NSW v WA match just gone. WA have been involved in some crackers, at least three by my reckoning and 2020 can't provide the thrills a long format match can.
Lolly
Guest
It's such a shame. I've been a West Australian fan since I was a kid and got used to the Warriors name. But somehow just can't get my head around the Scorchers. The whole tournament appears to be a bit naff, but we'll see, I might get enthrused despite low expectations. One of the problems is that the Shield season has been very exciting - proved by the NSW v WA match just gone. WA have been involved in some crackers, at least three by my reckoning and 2020 can't provide the thrills a long format match can.
Dean
Guest
Cricket Australia has used up a lot of capital on this thing. It better work for their sake. Gttommo, in Sydney there is two teams and bugger if I know which is which.
Jack Russell
Roar Guru
No-one's going to take it seriously - and that's partly because Cricket Australia don't take it seriously. Gave the league a joke name, the length of the competition is a joke, and some of the names and uniforms are laughable. Doesn't help that there are also absurd restrictions on overseas players. Sport is serious business. If you don't understand that, then you will fail at the first hurdle.
The Cattery
Roar Guru
To not support one of the Sydney teams, for example, because half the players don't hail from Sydney is kind of a lame excuse to not support a team. Having said that, for me personally, it has never worked to just choose a team to start supporting. It just doesn't work that way. The team either chooses you, or you can forget about it.
sheek
Guest
And WHO are the West End Redbacks ..........????? (it's a rhetorical question, BTW)
mds1970
Roar Guru
I can understand why they wanted to expand the scope of the T20 comp. The strong attendances over the last few seasons justified it. But I would have preferred to keep the states but have them playing more games against each other. I'll go out to a few games. I'm leaning towards Sydney Thunder, especially with Dave Warner and Chris Gayle opening the batting (although that's now in doubt if Warner cements a spot in the Test team). It'll be entertaining cricket. But it will take time to warm to the new team - and I'd have rather had NSW Blues playing more games against the other states.
Ben Carter
Roar Guru
Well said Tommo - I am not struggling to get behind the Twenty20-team-that-will-be-based-at-Adelaide-Oval. I am not paying them any direct attention whatsoever. And I'm a cricket nut. If they wore red (even with blue trim) and were the "SA Strikers", with just another name revamp then MAYBE, maybe.... But to be honest, as I've said previously, there was absolutely nothing wrong whatsoever with the Big Bash as it was! State versus state, same teams. Just add NT and ACT and be done with it. Grrr..... So I am interested in the Sheffield Shield and Ryobi Cup this summer. Not the other domestic cricket competition. That's definitely been dreamed up to capture the attention of an entirely different type of person!
Rough Conduct
Guest
I am a Queensland Cricket tragic but could not care less about the fortunes on the Brisbane Scorchers/Heat/Sunburn or whatever they are. For a start, I am a Queenslander who lives outside of Brisbane, outside the SE corner even – yes, I know it’s hard to believe, but there are actually small, scattered village communities north of Noosa and west of Ipswich. These new T20 franchises completely disregard regional Australia – WTF? I hope this competition crashes and burns, much like I hope the ARC would – an equally ill-conceived and soulless convolution.
SVB
Guest
Out of all the sports cricket has been affected the most by the advent of money in sport. It is like it is torn between its traditions and the realistic ways of the new modern world. Love a good test match where there is great drama and action, but I can't say I like 50 over games anymore (let alone 20/20). There used to be a time when seeing a 'six' hit was something special. Not anymore. It is like when you get too much of the same thing it just not the same anymore.
Football United
Guest
^THIS. there is no way that i will support either with those clowns in charge
Ian Whitchurch
Guest
The BBL is a pump and dump with no buyers.
Football United
Guest
well both the melbourne teams have stupid names, although not as bad as sydney, and their advertising looks like it has been done for 12 year olds. surprise surprise. what was so hard about keeping the teams and just adding other regions like geelong, newcastle, gold coast and canberra? now we are stuck witha crap comp with crap teams with crap names with crap kits run by the marketing people at CA.
HardcorePrawn
Guest
And when you take into account that one Melbourne team has Eddie McGuire as its President, and the other James Brayshaw as Chairman, it's enough to make any self-respecting Victorian want to support an interstate team!
TheHawk
Guest
Can't agree more, I'm also struggling as I am a Victorian so a strong supporter of the Bushrangers but am now based in Canberra with no local team. Decided between Melbourne teams makes no sense as they are not geographically divided.
peeeko
Roar Guru
I see where you are coming from but maybe this is what cricket needs, I think having "state" teams is a bit unrealistic given the population differences between the states. Tasmania and SA have been living off rejects from other states for any years anyway
Chris Chard
Expert
The Gold Coast missed out as well despite having a brand new oval with the same dimensions as the MCG, I think 20-20 is right up the GC's ally.