The 2018-19 summer of cricket is quickly approaching, and to many it feels like a whole new ball game – a chance for a new era of Australian cricket to commence.
Following the unfortunate events that surrounded the Australian men’s cricket team in Cape Town earlier this year, many around cricket in Australia will be hoping for new players to write themselves into the history books in a new-look Aussie outfit.
A new leadership group led by Tim Paine will feature in Australia for the first time and domestic stalwarts of Australian cricket Aaron Finch and Glenn Maxwell look likely to return to the Test team.
In April this year cricket Australia announced a brand-new broadcasting agreement with Channel Seven and Fox Sports. As the JLT One-Day Cup comes ever closer to kicking off for the season, so too is the launch of Fox Cricket, a 24/7 dedicated cricket channel on Fox Sports in the style of the successful Fox Footy and Fox League stations. This season will also see the return of the Sheffield Shield to television, with the final to be broadcast on Fox Cricket.
Many new initiatives will be included in the broadcast deal on both networks along with new faces from both Australia and abroad. The Prime Minister’s XI and Governor General’s XI matches will also be broadcast on Fox Cricket, underlining that this is indeed a new era of Australian cricket.
(Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)
New sponsors have signed with Cricket Australia – Domain, Woolworths, Alinta Energy are just some of the new partners to join the national cricketing body – and Perth’s Optus Stadium is set to feature heavily for the first time in the Australian cricket scene. It’s all a major boost following the ball-tampering saga in March this year.
The Big Bash League will feature a few home-and-away tournament matches in regional Australia with the assistance of the new broadcast deal. More regional venues will be included, including grounds in Moe and the Gold Coast, both of which will host the BBL for the first time.
The move to a longer season format will push the finish of the BBL into February, but this will mean Australia’s top cricketers should be available for the finals, contrary to the way things have panned out in the past.
Our women’s team will also be looking for another successful season, kicking off this time with the with a T20 series against New Zealand ahead of the Women’s World Twenty20 in the West Indies in November. This will also be the last season that the Women’s Big Bash League will feature alongside the men’s tournament, with the 2019-20 WBBL set for a standalone time frame between October and December.
This an exciting time to be part of cricket in Australia. It’s a new era, and it’s one to be very excited about.
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