Why is the Big Bash in such a hurry?

The Big Bash is still growing up. KFC couldn’t be happier. If this is what it is after four seasons,who knows, the sky is the limit.

It is the biggest earning form of cricket in Australia, outside International cricket – and that is a point to savour.

Yes, the Perth Scorchers would have been very stiff to lose to rain or an unfair run target, but fortunately neither occurred.

One day in the not too distant future, those Cricket Chiefs, who have given T20 a rough ride will come to understand what they have stumbled on.

It is not a surprise to me. What surprises me is the Establishment of Cricket’s reaction to what they have had dumped in their lap.

And here we are in a KFC Big Bash Final asking the Scorchers to back up two nights later, with a trip back to Perth in between, to win the title.

They’re hosting the game, but someone at CA is in an all-fired hurry to get the Final in on Friday, not Saturday, where proper preparation can be undertaken, and promotion of the game goes worldwide, like IPL.

I mean, please tell me, why is there a hurry?

For some reason T20 Cricket is in a hurry to get through overs, for batsmen to run off the park, for the break between innings to be rushed, for everything to seem like it’s on a knifes edge.

Normal games take less than three hours. Baseball games take four on average and sometimes finish in the early hours of the morning in the Major Leagues.

Sit back, relax and enjoy the bat rapping the ball, enjoy the great catches, savour the phenomenal fielding and throwing, the incredible power of Simmons and Nic Maddinson, and the fan participation.

Phew, this getting a cricket competition going on the Ten Network in no time flat has got pulses racing all over the place. The Fairfax Radio Network is going bananas and Ten has a bona fide local sporting product – the future is assured, so let’s all calm down.

Right, everyone calm now? Good.

So tell me. Why do we need to reduce a Semi Final of one of the world’s best cricket games to a 5 over run chase? Are Town Councils in Australia concerned that people won’t get some sleep?

Is this 2014 or 1914?

This is a final of the KFC Big Bash, the biggest domestic competition in Australian Cricket. Does anyone understand that?

Councils, State Cricket Associations, Franchisees, Cricket Australia, Media networks – you need to pick up your presentation, invest in it, and get on it.

Let yourself go – don’t hold back.

These kids are as good as any. I repeat, ANY group of cricketers, anywhere in the world. They deserve better than they are getting from Cricket.

Go back over the game highlights and tell me this isn’t as good a form of entertainment as any athletic spectacle anywhere!

The Hurricanes upset the Stars on Tuesday night. Then the Scorchers won on Wednesday. So why could the Final of the biggest domestic cricket match not have been played on Saturday, or Sunday even?

One day the playoffs/semis for the Big Bash might be a three-game series. And the Final might be a three-game series.

Why isn’t Australian Cricket thinking like that? Don’t they like money?

If I were the sponsors of the Big Bash, if I were the franchisees of the Big Bash, if I were a fan of the Big Bash, I’d like that question to be answered.

KFC Big Bash is T20 Cricket is better than Baseball. Did you see the Scorchers and the Sixers on Wednesday night? The Scorchers went to Sydney under Justin Langers’ tutelage as rank outsiders and won in a canter.

This is the same Justin Langer who can’t get a gig as an Australian Coach.

They scored 193 from their 120 deliveries with Craig Simmons breaking more records (11 sixes) and scoring another ton. He was massive.

Simon Katich and Adam Voges got 60 between them, but the big man from Paddington in Sydney was a colossus. 117 of the 193. Huge!

Then down came the rain. Ten Sport and the match referees, the umpires and grounds-people could only do their best, but at one point the match was nearly abandoned, and the Sixers would have won the game by dint of finishing higher on the table, and played the Hurricanes in the Final.

Somehow the Rain Gods squeezed enough time for 5 overs and in that time the Scorchers took 6 wickets (Patty Cummins took 3 in one over)and the Sixers fell short.

The Scorchers had heroes everywhere and the Sixers were never really in the contest. But the travesty was they could have won by default, or by batting for 5 overs and making 50 odd runs, all because people at CA and elsewhere are in an all-fired hurry.

Because of the unnecessarily tight scheduling, both in terms of game time and the scheduling of the Final for Friday, Wednesday’s result meant a farce was narrowly avoided.

I think that T20 Big Bash can rival anything the IPL throws at it. One day, domestic cricketers in Australia will earn as much money as AFL, NRL, ARU and A-League players.

And they will play in a National League of Cricket – mark my words.