Over the summer holidays, we are treated to a game of T20 cricket every night thanks to the Big Bash League.
By increasing the amount of games played from 35 in BBL|06, to 43 in BBL|07 and now to a whopping 56 in BBL|08, Cricket Australia want people to take the BBL seriously.
But can a league be taken seriously if poor performances are simply swept under the carpet?
It sounds silly, a league needing negative coverage to truly succeed, but for every exciting finish and classic catch, there’s a disappointing season from the reigning champions or a superstar batsman who can’t find his form – and nothing is said.
During the AFL off-season, Port Adelaide midfielder Ollie Wines injured his shoulder while water-skiing and journalists ate it up. The BBL will never get to an AFL level of negative coverage, but a little wouldn’t hurt. After all, the lows provide something with which to compare the highs.
But this season, the BBL has tried to ride one too many highs.
Poor drop-in pitches with low batting totals, dwindling attendances, and games made exclusive to Foxtel are all part of the reason why the BBL didn’t get off the ground in its first two seasons.
Can negative coverage save those elements? No. But it can offer a fresh take on a league that tried to have too much of a good thing.
Take the reigning champions, the Adelaide Strikers, for example. Last year, their star players led them to their first crown. This season, they’ve won four out of 11 games and have averaged an abysmal 124.5 runs over their last four outings – yet nothing has been said.
Nothing has been said about last year’s champions not making finals. Let that sink in.
Up north, Brisbane Heat captain Chris Lynn and his fellow ‘Bash Brother’, Brendon McCullum, are the talk during pre-season, but over their last four matches, Lynn is averaging 3.5 runs, while McCullum only just scrapes into double digits with 10.75.
Chris Lynn of the Heat (AAP Image/Dan Peled)
The Heat currently sit in seventh place, with a 3-7 record, and there deserves to be an article or two about what went wrong (again) in Brisbane this year.
CA wanted the Big Bash to reach unachievable heights of professionalism as they tried to own even more of the summer market, but crowd figures and TV ratings have shown that there is a limit to how much T20 Australia can handle.
CA should revert to the old scheduling, but their deal with Seven and Fox rules out any chance of that happening.
The six-year, $1.182 billion contract with the two networks included an expanded season, but it might need some renegotiating before this favourite product is killed.
If there’s no appetite to give up the 56 games, the other option is to change the way the league itself is covered. George Bailey’s smile, Marcus Stoinis’ incredible physique and the commentators’ love affair with WinViz can only go so far.
The Big Bash League needs to provide coverage of poor performances, disappointing seasons and underwhelming playing surfaces if it wants to become as professional as Cricket Australia, Seven and Fox all dreamt it could be.
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