The draw for the 2018-19 season of the Big Bash League was released earlier this morning, with more action than ever before.
The biggest talking point is the introduction of full home-and-away fixtures, with BBL08 set to feature 59 matches, up from the 43 played in the previous season.
The competition will also controversially embrace the festive season this year, with two games to be played on Christmas Eve.
The regular season kicks off on December 19, when defending champions the Adelaide Strikers take on the Brisbane Heat at the Gabba and wraps up on February 10 with the Melbourne Stars hosting the Sydney Sixers at the MCG.
The finals series begins on February 14 while the final will be contested three days later on February 17.
The Gold Coast is one of the new destinations that will host Big Bash games in 2018-19, with the Brisbane Heat taking two of its seven home games to Carrara Stadium.
The Melbourne Stars will also be making the trip up north when they host the Sydney Thunder on January 5.
In addition, the BBL makes its return to Launceston and Alice Springs, after games were held in both locations last summer.
The Adelaide Strikers host the Perth Scorchers at Traeger Park in the Northern Territory, while the Hobart Hurricanes play two matches at UTAS Stadium.
BBL08 will be showcased across Australia, with every match shown live on subscription television provider Fox Sports. 43 of the 59 games this year will also be shown on free-to-air television by new broadcasting partner Channel Seven.
Head of the Big Bash League Kim McConnie said the decision to expand the season was important in the future of the sport.
“The objective of moving the BBL to a full home and away fixture is consistent with Cricket Australia’s strategy of growing the Big Bash and becoming number one for fans across Australia,” she said.
“With more games, in more locations, we believe this is going to be one of the most exciting, action-packed BBL seasons to-date.”
The draw will also be more family-friendly, with games spread evenly throughout the holiday period and into February.
“The season will extend past school holidays, so as the competition moves into February, there will be more family-friendly timeslots on weekends to help drive participation,” McConnie said.
Pope Paul VII
Guest
Pity there's no game on Christmas night.
jameswm
Roar Guru
Agreed, a month is about right. We'll lose interest after a while. If you want more games, have double headers, esp on Sat-Sun. You could even have a triple header on Sunday.
The Bush
Roar Guru
Two months is waaaaaay too long. It should never have gone beyond Australia Day. Cricket every day for a month is great, especially coming home to it on the last week of work and the first two weeks or so back, but after that you just start to burn out. Especially because people start kicking the year into gear after Australia Day.
Rellum
Roar Guru
Burn out comes from games on every day. It is nice to have cricket on every day, even if it is T20 in the background, but by the end of it is stale.
Monday QB
Guest
Agree. It’s a great time of year for the BBL - lots of people on holidays and the 3 hr format after a hot summers day at the beach (or wherever!) can make for really exciting viewing. But you can have too much of a good thing and 59 games means heaps of cricket in the space of a month and a half, with the likely impacts being smaller crowds (especially once school holidays are over in early feb) and fewer eyeballs on the TV each night. Still, this has to be being lead by the networks and someone must but happy enough to pony up the $$. Think of the advertising dollars!
XI
Roar Guru
They probably should have not had any midweek games in February but still interesting
Doran Smith
Roar Guru
It should be an interesting competition.
AREH
Roar Guru
Exciting, especially for younger fans, but gee I still feel 59 games is way too many, and there is a bit of too much of a good thing about all this. I know many on this site have described getting 'BBL burnout' towards the end of the tournament in the past, and that was with substantially less matches than now. I feel that one of the best aspects of T20 cricket (used to be) the elusive and special feel the matches had because of their rarity, and in recent years that has been thrown out. Ratings and numbers were down a little last season compared to the few seasons preceding it; I obviously hope such a downward trend doesn't continue, but can't help fear CA might be slowly killing their golden goose.