The headline on the promotional poster says it all. From tonight it’s “show time” as the second season of the Big Bash League gets underway with a match between the Melbourne Stars and the Melbourne Renegades.
12 months ago those names didn’t mean anything. They were fresh out of a marketing meeting and Cricket Australia was hoping everyone was curious enough to take notice.
In February of 2011, I asked whether Cricket Australia would get away with manufacturing tribalism.
They’d just announced this shiny new concept, ditching traditional rivalries played out along state lines and replacing them with city based teams.
It had no identity, no personality and some (ahem) were predicting little hope.
“It takes time for fans to warm to a team,” I wrote on this very site.
“They won’t go and spend money on tickets and jerseys just because you tell them it’s a good idea.
“A lack of top-name stars could also hurt the gate takings.
“The Australian test team will be playing India during the Big Bash and the big names may only be available for the first week or two of the competition, if at all. But as one Cricket Australia official told me yesterday, they’re hoping it’s a case of Test cricket by day and Big Bash League by night.
“Whether that blue-print works in reality remains to be seen.”
It did turn out to be reality and in the process made a fool of me and perhaps some of you as well.
“Can’t see myself turning up to games to support a manufactured team. They’ve lost me from Big Bash,” said Chris in response to the column.
“The revamped Big Bash is the latest in a series of Cricket Australia stuff ups. To give you a simple answer – NO,” said Willy.
Mexican Bob was thinking along the same lines.
“Gotta agree with Willy, I’ve had a gutful of this promotional BS..call me a dinosaur, I don’t care.”
But as the tournament progressed more and more people did care.
It might not have been tribalism, but it was mindless entertainment and it appears there’s nothing wrong with that.
You don’t have to care about averages or field placings. All that matters is that the little white round thing flies over the fence and into the sea of people.
It’s as simple as that.
The television coverage is also second to none, with Fox Sports placing cameras in just about every position imaginable.
To ponder tribalism is to miss the entire point of Twenty20 cricket and by extension the Big Bash League. It’s sports entertainment.
Interest is decided by your current proximity to a ground or a television and not by discussion about the merits of the Thunder’s batting line-up or the Scorchers’ first change bowling options.
Twenty20 wasn’t designed to cater for such discussions.
It’s purely a case of ball meets bat meets luck and that’s ok.
Cricket Australia is desperate to convert fans of the Big Bash League into admirers of Test cricket.
Head office says the competition can be a vehicle for generational change.
Whether that happens remains to be seen, but the BBL looks set to achieve its primary objective once again.
It’s the background music to the summer or, as that Cricket Australia official told me almost two years ago, “it’s a case of Test cricket by day and Big Bash League by night.”
Few will now object to that.
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