With their new television deal signed, sealed and delivered, some of the many questions left to answer are whether or not Cricket Australia (CA) is risking overkill with the expansion of the Big Bash League (BBL) into a full home-and-away series and what this will mean for the other cricket competitions taking place during the summer months.
The popularity of the BBL competition has already resulted in an increased number of matches, from the initial expansion from 31 games in 2011-12 to 35 games in 2012-13 to the further growth to 43 matches last season to give each team five home games.
In its wisdom Cricket Australia has grown the concept to a full home-and-away series, incorporating a total of 59 games which will now span close to two months of the cricketing calendar.
Without knowing just how all of these matches will fit into the calendar that will also have to weave in Test matches against India and Sri Lanka, an ODI series against Sri Lanka and the maligned Sheffield Shield competition, the question must be asked as to how much interest the Australian public has in so much T20 cricket.
The beginning of the BBL each year comes at a good time, usually the week leading up to Christmas when the festive spirit can mix with the exciting blend of the start of a new season.
(AAP Image/Craig Golding)
After a couple of days break it returns in its full glory, giving cricket lovers a feast as they have the Boxing Day and New Year’s Day Tests during the day followed by a surfeit of the flashy BBL matches each evening, including matches on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. It is during this period that cricket rules the airwaves and the conversation at the water cooler.
However, by mid-January it has all become a blur. You begin to forget who played last night’s match, let alone who won. Each game blends into the next in a flurry of French cuts and top edges, of wides and no-ball free hits. If Chris Lynn didn’t produce some ‘Lynnsanity’ or Joffra Archer didn’t destroy stumps at 150 kilometres per hour, then the game becomes forgettable.
While you may have watched every ball from the first two weeks of the tournament, now you find yourself going to bed before the match finishes as you have to work the next day, and the TV networks won’t let the games start at 6.30pm so it can be finished early.
Nothing could stop you from watching every match during the opening weeks of the tournament, but when your partner suggests watching a movie together come mid-January you actually feel thankful to have something different to watch other than a Glenn Maxwell reverse sweep for six. The talk with friends has begun to turn towards the upcoming footy season, and the cricket becomes a sideshow to other conversation.
It doesn’t matter how good the cricket is, because an over-saturation of the game is certain to convince many to start turning off. One full round complemented by two semi-finals and a final felt like the right mix and right length of season. Twice that amount already feels like it is overkill, and we are still eight months away from the start of BBL08.
(AAP Image/Richard Wainwright)
No doubt there will have to be double-headers played during the season on every weekend, but even then it would be difficult to fit the whole competition into less than eight weeks, which just feels too long.
At this length it will compromise both the international and domestic seasons. Certainly the Sheffield Shield, which cannot operate without the domestic players who will be taking part in the BBL, looks as though it will again be forced to have its integrity tarnished by being further placed further down the queue, which isn’t a good sign in trying to produce Test-quality players.
Officials may argue the profits derived from more BBL matches will go towards keeping the Shield alive, but if it is only going to be fought in the months of November and March, it risks being pushed into a dark corner, and the competition that has been the basis of Australia’s dominance over all other nations up until now could be cast into irrelevance, which would not only be a travesty but also lead to a dark future for our national cricket team.
‘Less is more’ is a phrase often used in situations like these, and it appears just as relevant now as it ever has. Whether it is greed or misplaced enthusiasm that has brought us to this point, the BBL expansion could be a turning point for Australian cricket, but not necessarily in the way that Cricket Australia may have envisioned it.
David
Guest
Currently there are three formats of the game which all should have equal support but the it appears that CA are throwing their weight behind T20 as the main revenue stream, and pushing tests, and ultimately the Shield into obscurity - not to mention ODI. Gone are the days that you dined out on quality now you have quantity dished up and thrown in your face. I absolutely love cricket, but now I am being turned off by the direction it is taking. T20 might be exciting after a few games but then it becomes mundane in the sense that it is too much. I would be saying the same if there were countless ODIs and countless tests. But in reality there are only (on average) 5 tests per home series. and if you are lucky maybe 5 ODIS. But along comes IPL and get 50 odd games - the balance is just not right. And on the flip side Shield cricket which is 30 games a season gets split like a piece of wood. Continuity for a player goes out the window. I also wonder why should we be paying people more for less? Strange and disappointing times.
AREH
Roar Guru
Makes little sense; the last thing the BBL needed was more matches. Anyone please correct me if so, but IIRC there are 55? home and away matches scheduled for BBL08 next year? That's insane; I feel many were getting burnout towards the end of the most recent tournament. Sometimes less is more, and I'm not sure this tournament requires more saturation.
Paul
Roar Guru
Cricket Australia and it's previous incarnations have a history of not milking the cash cow but raping it. Those old enough will remember the multiple series Australia played against those great West Indian sides of the '80s. If it wasn't Test matches it was multiple ODIs and in some seasons, both. After a time, the Australian players got sick of being constantly battered by their quicks and the Australian public switched off when the side consistently lost. The same administrators tried very hard to kill off spectator interest in ODIs by scheduling huge numbers of games, over the past 25 years and no doubt, they will do exactly the same thing with BBL. At some point, we need to get administrators into CA who believe about protecting the game and making sure all formats are staged well enough to be enjoyable, rather than focusing exclusively on those which make money and hoping the others will simply die off.
Andre Leslie
Roar Guru
T20 cricket is what the fans enjoy... which is important for growing the game here and keeping cricket healthy. Domestically, the BBL is really the only comp that is working with the fans. But, being too greedy with the BBL will surely eventually backfire.. by undermining Shield and other longer form cricket and eventually the Test cricket itself potentially. It doesn't sound like the mix is quite right in the new season. We all love Big Bash around xmas and NYE but I wonder if all four 'comps' (BBL, Shield, One Day state and intl cricket) could go all summer season... ? The Domestic One Day cricket could be spliced in between the T20... the BBL in between a few more intl T20s that Australia should be playing anyway. And would cricket's newest fans really be annoyed if the T20 comp was decided in finals in March? Or do we have to copy the short, sharp season format - just because it is the way it is done in the IPL?
Noah Barling
Roar Pro
Maybe we should go back to the good 'ole days when Sheffield Shield had sell-outs every game. When fathers used to take their sons to watch the greats and give them a grounding in the sport.
mrrexdog
Roar Guru
I don’t see the season going on for too much longer than it currently does, just play double headers during the week, have a 4pm game and 7pm game
DTM
Guest
I doubt the CA execs have ever heard of the concept of killing the goose that lays the golden egg - besides, they probably just need a few more good seasons to set up their personal finances for life. BBL is at it's maximum now, any expansion and it will significantly damage test and shield cricket in the short term and the whole game in the medium term. Looking at it from a different perspective, should we just can test, shield and one day cricket now before it loses more money? We could then have 2 seasons of BBL each year - one in the southern states during summer and one in the northern states during winter. The players could then travel around the world making money from other leagues - does anyone really care about ODI's? and will test cricket survive anyway?
Tom Simon
Roar Pro
I think this is one of the biggest limitations of the Big Bash. The Indian market is the big cash cow, but the BCCI won't release any Indian players. South Africa generally play tests during December, and Australia and New Zealand's best players are tied up home summer series. So there's India plus four test nations and then their opponents all unavailable. This leaves only a small number of quality players left for the Big Bash to attract, and as a result we're left with overseas imports like Sam Billings for example, a quality player don't get me wrong, but not someone who will bring the fans flooding through the gates!
BrainsTrust
Guest
They have already split the Sheffield Shield which was the major problem. Now this makes the gap even bigger. The Australian cricket team is going to receive a major pay boost. The Big Bash was supposedly losing 30 million a year according to Cricket Australia with a 20 million a year Tv deal. So by increasing the matches then you lose about 45 million if you had a 30 million Tv deal and more if attendance average flop. Remember international matches also bring in foreign Tv revenue but Big Bash does not. So there is no real reason to expand the Big bash for economic reasons.
Cantab
Guest
Good stuff, it’s the most popular and financial viable product CA has. 7 home games for the heat, means the Gabba will sell out a total of 7 times in the year. T20 is sadly the future.
qwetzen
Guest
They've scheduled more of it? How does this accord with CA's stated policy that; "Test cricket has primacy"?
Len
Guest
Increasing the length of the BBL may also mean the overseas players may not be able to play the full tournament due to other international commitments. It happens already with the current format, but a longer tournament wil surely mean more exits.
Custard Cream
Roar Rookie
What's needed, Bill, is some daring thinking. Why not set up a brand new competition where each team bowls 15 six-ball overs plus a final 10-ball over which can be delivered by up to three bowlers! That'll get the punters in, plus it will have absolutely no effect on your test players. And even if it did, who cares?