BBL06 Fixture: No cricket on Christmas, but we'll have fun nonetheless

The Big Bash League announced the fixture for BBL|06 earlier today, mostly sticking to the well-worn script of previous year. However, the hotly anticipated addition of a Christmas Day match up will have to wait at least another 12 months.

BBL|06 will run over a 40-day window, commencing on Tuesday 20 December with a Sydney Derby, with the regular season wrapping up on Saturday, 21 January as the Melbourne Stars host the Sydney Sixers. The home-and-away portion of the season is spread over the same 32 days as last year, but by starting a few days later the competition itself will now stretch to near the end of the summer school holiday period. On average, there’ll be a game every night over the Christmas break.

If that sounds familiar that’s because it is. Despite the overwhelming success of BBL|05 – record crowds, TV viewership and commercial interest – BBL HQ and Cricket Australia have decided to sit pat on any fundamental changes to the competition.

Towards the end of last season, there was significant buzz that the BBL would seek to expand it schedule to nine games per side, up from the current eight. There was also plenty of talk that the League was considering becoming the first Tier One sport in Australia to play a game on Christmas Day or Night. Neither of these changes came to pass.

Instead, the League will take a two-day break to observe the holidays, with no game scheduled on either Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. The BBL will also have lay days on the two nights which would have overlapped with Australian ODI games in mid and late January.

This seems like a missed opportunity. The latter is certainly understandable – name me an organisation that would voluntarily cannabalise itself by selling two products in a fixed market – but the expansion in games and Christmas Day scheduling are no-brainer changes that will come eventually. Why not now, while interest is at what’s likely to be a very high plateau? The rationale would be that this is the penultimate year of a broadcast agreement with their partner, Ten Network, but even then, that shouldn’t be a barrier in its own right.

The League has also retained the current knock-out finals series, despite last year’s top finisher, the Adelaide Strikers, continuing a proud tradition of #1 seeds being knocked out in their semi-final. Again, there was plenty of talk that a change may come into play, where the #1 and #2 seeds would play off for straight passage to the Big Final in a Qualifying Final, #3 and #4 seeds playing for the right to face the loser of the Qualifying Final in a semi-final, and the winner of the semi-final to play off against the winner of the Qualifying Final in the final. Alas, another missed chance.

From here, there eW plenty of great match ups. While the BBL is built on the idea that a game between the Hobart Hurricanes and Brisbane Heat will be of interest to the entire country, rivalries are emerging and points of interest always abound. It’s hard to talk with much certainty, given the playing lists are nowhere close to being finalised, but let’s give it a crack.

The BBL’s “Kerry Packer Moment” – the unthinkable 80,000+ crowd that rolled up to watch the Melbourne Derby on Saturday, January 2 – will get a chance for a reprise but on New Years Day. The lead up to that game was something else: the clubs expected around 55,000, then 60,000, then 70,000, before the final number hit 80,833.

Melbourne will travel to the west of Sydney for the Big Final re-match on Wednesday, January 4, and they’ll back it up three days later with the return leg of the Melbourne derby. That will be a hectic week of cricket, and if the Stars continue to build their reputation as the New York Yankees of the BBL, it promises to be good fun.

Adelaide Oval will once again get to host the New Year’s Eve fixture, which was decided in rapturous circumstances last seasoN.

The next step in the lead up to BBL|06 is the closure of the first player contracting window on July 1, whereby each franchise must have at least 10 of its 18-man squad finalised. A trade period runs the week commencing November 14, and the final date for player contracting ahead of the first ball being bowled is Friday, December 2.

The full fixture is below.

All things considered, this was the most likely outcome for BBL06: no major changes to the fixture. The rights negotiations for the next BBL broadcast agreement will likely kick off in earnest next year, and so Cricket Australia and BBL HQ have decided to bank on a steady-as-she-goes approach.

What do you reckon, Roarers?