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A big summer of cricket is in front of us. The Australia versus New Zealand Test match is in progress, the Indians come later this summer and the launch of Australia’s newest professional sports league, the Big Bash League, makes up the calendar.
It will be Test cricket at its finest, and T20 at its most flamboyant.
Looking at the league’s website, it is clear that the promoters have approached the challenge of establishing a new competition and new teams with a very clear agenda. Words like ‘big,’ ‘loud,’ and ‘passionate’ must have been thrown around liberally in that board meeting.
The next big catch cry must have been ‘get ‘em while they’re young,’ followed closely by other marketing buzz words like ‘fresh,’ ‘innovative,’ and, most importantly, ‘bold.’
However, most interesting of all is how the marketers have tried to position this big, new, bold competition as also being something familiar. Creating a team from a vacuum is hard or even nearly impossible (just ask the A-League and FFA).
What new teams lack is the sense of ownership from the crowd, that tribalism and pride that a community has in their side.
This is something that takes years, perhaps decades, to create. But the Big Bash organisers have done something semi-clever in the allocation of teams, and the way in which each has been billed.
Eight teams, spread across each state, one in every capital and two in Sydney and Melbourne. By giving the country’s (and indeed cricket’s) two biggest cities two teams each, they have not only covered a large population, but also attempted to generate rivalries.
This is all well and good, but how do we create that tribalism which is vital for success?
By appealing to the different classes in each city.
According to the league’s official website, The Melbourne Renegades boast that they “represent modern Melbourne – vibrant, diverse and progressive.”
They also have a healthy “anti-establishment” streak, while their cross-town rivals, the Stars, “respect tradition but won’t be afraid to blow it off and write their own history.”
The Stars will also play with “arrogance like the city they represent.”
In short, Melbourne’s old private school boys against the young, inner city trendies.
A similar cross-town comparison has occurred in Sydney, with the Sydney Sixers showcasing the harbour city’s “glitz and glamour”, and the Thunder representing the real Sydney, “the hard-working families from the heartland of Australia.”
Sydney’s rich and famous against the working class. The old Fibros and the Silvertails.
All of this is clever marketing, but with one significant problem. How many cricket fans will actively research their new team and what it claims to represent, and how many will buy into the image?
Who you are and what you stand for as a team either comes from your homeland, or your actions as a team, not from some cleverly written biopic on your website.
At the end of the day, this new league will only be taken as seriously as the cricket it produces. And right now, it resembles nothing more than an exercise in marketing.
Manufactured teams, captains holding cue cards with scripts regarding who and what they represent without yet having held a bat in anger, and brightly coloured pyjamas without a hint of significance to their supporter base.
Real success will come for the team who puts on the best show, whoever’s home stadia pours the best and cheapest beer, and who hits the most sixes.
I’m all for giving this new league a try, but seriously, the marketers should stop the spin and leave it for Warney.
We’ll make up our own minds.
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