Let’s do two sets of rankings for the final BBL column for this year: the finals teams, and four things Cricket Australia should do to fix the Big Bash.
It has been the talking point of the tournament: the Big Bash has lost some of its lustre in its first season under new broadcast ownership.
Whether it’s the move to the full home-and-away slate, the frequent examples of bog average play, or the length of the tournament, the tournament itself has taken something of a back seat to complaints about the tournament.
It’s a shame really, because the past week gave us some pretty compelling cricket, all played with as great a consequence as this tournament can give us.
From Thursday night to Sunday afternoon, all but one game mattered for the shape of the finals series, and there were plenty of twists and turns.
The Melbourne Renegades lost their final game of the season, but somehow ended up jumping the Sydney Sixers and will host them in the second semi-final.
Brisbane kept their feint finals hopes alive on the back of an utterly bonkers display of hitting from Max Bryant and Ben Cutting; 158 from ten overs even is no joke.
Adelaide and Perth played a compelling and high scoring game that went down to the last over. The Sydney Thunder got a win over the Hurricanes, but it didn’t come fast enough to put them over the Heat ahead of the Stars having their chance to leap into the four.
It ultimately didn’t matter because the green Melbourne side took care of business in beating the Sixers, condemning them to an away semi-final while also booking their own spot.
And didn’t Glenn Maxwell put on a show for us? His was one of the best innings of the summer: a beautifully crafted 82 from 43 balls where he hit gaps with utmost ease.
(AAP Image/Richard Wainwright)
The end of that game was met with howls of derision on social media. “What, the tournament is over already?” There’s no doubt BBL08 ran too long, doubly so given there were a few reasonable gaps in play throughout. But that’s not the most important fix Cricket Australia should apply ahead of next year’s tournament.
Before we get to the final rankings, here’s an impromptu ranking of four things Cricket Australia should do to fix the Big Bash.
1. Lift the import cap by one, and get the broadcasters to pay for the lot of them
Chris Gayle, Alex Hales, AB de Villiers, Sunil Narine, Kieron Pollard, Andre Russell, Tamim Iqbal, Shahid Afridi, Thisara Perera. These players chose to play in the Bangladesh Premier League over the Big Bash League.
Gayle aside, Cricket Australia should feel embarrassed, particularly with regular proclamations that it wants – and thinks – the BBL to be the second best T20 league in the world.
That’s not to besmirch the internationals who did sign up to play in Australia this summer. From Rashid Khan to Tom Curran, Jos Buttler to Jofra Archer, our league has had a decent lot of international talent.
However, it simply doesn’t compare to the quantity and quality which chose to play cricket somewhere else.
Cricket Australia cannot sit pat and hope there is no schedule conflict next year. It must take action to attract some additional marquee international talent to the competition in 2020.
It can do this by increasing the number of players a team can host at any one time from two to three – which would also go some way to addressing the quality of play by crowding out some grade cricketers who really shouldn’t be asked to mix it with the pros – and getting the broadcasters to pay for it.
They can do that with a bit of extra cash, but also by media exposure and other commercial opportunities.
The Big Bash is supposed to be Australian cricket’s marquee money-spinner, not a developmental league. And you know what they say: you’ve got to spend money to make money.
The broadcasters should be asked to tip in just a little extra, with a view to improving the number of eyeballs on screens.
(AAP Image/Dave Hunt)
2. Condense the schedule, and lose the ‘every night’ angle
Part of the Big Bash’s charm in the early years was that it was on every night. I suspect that is a winning formula when there is a relatively scarce supply of games; when there’s 56, every night suddenly feels like a bit of work.
But equally, the competition ran too long. And Cricket Australia have already said there is no going back from the home-and-away slate of short-form cricket – the broadcast deal demands it be so. So, what can we do?
Every weekend should have six games played: one Thursday, one or two on Friday, two on Saturday, and one or two on Sunday. And those slots should be made regular: everyone knows a game will be on at 7:40PM EST on every Thursday during the tournament.
Each team will be faced with three or four instances of having to play two games in three days (let’s be real for a moment: these guys are playing T20 cricket not running a marathon, and the women have been playing these sorts of fixtures forever).
Then, there should be a core period of the summer where the game-a-night trope is a thing. You could run it from say Boxing Day to the week after New Years, a fortnight banquet of cricket wrapped around the Boxing Day and New Years Test matches.
Cram 30 games into 19-20 days. If we can get over this aversion to sport on Christmas Day that would make the task more straightforward.
Around that could be four weekends of six games, and bam, we’ve knocked close to two weeks off the schedule without losing any games. Make it happen Cricket Australia.
(Photo by Mark Brake/Getty Images)
3. Bring in DRS
For the love of all that is holy, bring in the Decision Review System. Poor quality umpiring has cost teams games this season.
There’s little hope of the standard of umpiring improving, given there seems to be a cast of about six umpires stewarding the competition. It can’t be allowed to go on.
When DRS became common at the international level, Cricket Australia resisted calls to bring it in domestically so as not to affect the flow and enjoyment of the game.
You know what affects the enjoyment of a game? Watching awful umpiring decisions that are obviously wrong go unchallenged.
Cricket Australia can no longer hide behind the flow of the game argument after half a dozen catches and close run outs were reviewed by umpires for far longer than a typical DRS sequence.
Bring in DRS. It’s time.
(Photo by Scott Barbour – CA/Cricket Australia/Getty Images)
4. Increase the bowling from four to five overs, reduce outfielders from five to four, and give the batting side four additional powerplay overs to take when they like
T20 is already set up to be compelling, but these subtle tweaks would help enhance the contest.
Limiting bowlers to four overs each has always seemed too few to me; I’d get rid of bowling limits all together if I were in charge. But lifting the restriction by one seems a sensible compromise, which would allow teams to pick one extra batsman or maintain a diversity in their bowling attack.
Reducing the number of outfielders is simply a play to stop the dominant strategy of taking the pace off the ball and bowling into a batsman’s legs from overs seven to 12 or so every inning. Now that I’ve told you that you won’t be able to not see it play out that way when you watch.
Adding a tactical element to the power play would add an extra layer of intrigue to proceedings, and allow the batting team some flex with regards to targeting specific bowlers or batsmen.
I have no idea if any of these things are worthwhile pursuing let alone legal. But I feel the competition’s tactics need a bit of a shake up.
Let’s quickly rank the final four.
1. Hobart Hurricanes (Last week: 1)
The presumptive favourite since around the second week of the competition, Hobart should win against the Stars on Thursday and will not fear either the Sydney Sixers or Melbourne Renegades in Hobart.
(Photo by Morgan Hancock/Action Plus via Getty Images)
2. Sydney Sixers (Last week: 2)
Funnily enough, the slow and low Docklands will suit Sydney’s style just nicely, particularly given Nathan Lyon and Steven O’Keefe will be bowling eight overs of tight off spin.
Unfortunately for the Sixers their best bowler (and one of their best three batsman) Tom Curran is off to save England in the West Indies and so will miss the finals series. If no one steps up in his absence that’ll hurt Sydney’s chances.
3. Melbourne Renegades (Last week: 3)
The Renegades have been hit by international duties too, with Mohammad Nabi being called back by the Afghanistan Cricket Board earlier than expected.
The ‘Gades are the most difficult-to-predict team of the four remaining, and will rely on their batting to get the job done against Sydney.
4. Melbourne Stars (Last week: 4)
Bringing up the rear are the Melbourne Stars, and that’s only because they face the ladder-leading Hurricanes in their semi-final.
On a neutral field I’d back the Stars to beat the Renegades, such has been the improvement in the team’s batting over the back end of the tournament.
Enjoy finals week, and we’ll chat Big Bash again next year.
Cadfael
Roar Guru
The major concern is that these overseas players may be involved in test series while the BBL is on. The Sixers just lost Curran, England and WI are playing as well as NZ and Bangladesh and SA and SL., That’s six lots of test players out. Seven when you include the Australian players out for the tests and one dayers.
Chris Kettlewell
Roar Guru
I'm just saying that, when it first started and every team only played each other once, except for the "derby games" extra one each, watching just about every game of the BBL was something that didn't seem so unreasonable. But having almost doubled the season, they've really turned it into something where it's highly unlikely too many people will want to watch every game live anyway, just like nobody who's job doesn't involve watching every match and has any sort of life would watch every NRL game or every AFL game. So if they had the odd clash where the two games were played simultaneously during the schedule (I'm not suggesting they'd have many, but they could have a few in there) it wouldn't be a big loss. Hey, for the first time this year they actually scheduled a BBL game that clashed with a test match. The fact the test finished early and the clash didn't eventuate doesn't change the fact they actually scheduled that clash. If they are going to do that, why be afraid of having two BBL games clash. But most of the time, playing two games on the same day would be double-headers. East coast game followed by west coast game, or something like that.
Ross
Guest
I think many people forget what the BBL is for. It is to engage new fans and give more opportunities for Australians to play cricket full time. Also to produce entertaining games, not be the "best of the best" tournament in the world. The BBL needs to create fans of specific teams. It isn't the long term objective to have 700K who watch every game of the tournament, the objective is to have 200K who watch each club for every game. CA does not want people watching every game-they want you following a club, buying a membership and watching those games. This is a level of loyalty fans are yet to have and is a decades-long project. One of the brilliant things about AFLW is everyone already knows who they support based on clubs. There is nobody writing about BBL yet that has followed a team from when they were 6 years old and they're going to have different perspectives that will be mainstream opinion in 10-20 years that is not currently captured in public debate but is extremely important to the future of cricket. 1. More Stars We've had plenty, those listed off are not that much better. Shakib Al Hasan was player of the tournament in the BPL (and he is a good player) but he's Bangladeshi just like Iqbal. Having more stars does nothing to build fan loyalty around clubs. And there really just is not that many available. And teams should be picking the best players to help them win, not those with the most "star" power. Also doesn't help with any objective to have more Australian players. How many supposed great players have failed in the IPL? Ponting got dropped! Also being so anti-club cricketer feels off. The solution here is to have a reserve BBL competition. And there'll be howls when the BBL salary cap increases because Shield cricketers will be paid relatively less. 2. The every night angle only came in from BBL04. They've dropped that this year anyway. Your suggestion of 30 games in 20 days is a bit ridiculous but anyway, that plus 4 weeks is still 48 days-only shaving 6 off this year's schedule anyway. BBL is not ready to handle simultaneous games, overlapping by a few balls got negative feedback this year. Double-headers and poor timeslots are worse for broadcasters than prime time slot games. Seven will want more BBL pre-Christmas, not less if they look at ratings data. 3. Actually, they trialed umpire reviews in BBL03(?) and it got hated on. But DRS may be reasonable now-so happy for them to do it, probably a nothing anyway until the ump gets it wrong just like the runout at the start of the season. 4. Unnecessary gimmick rule changes. We've been through these in ODIs (and ODDs)-they don't work. See also, AFLX garbage gimmicks.
Matt H
Roar Guru
Sounds like the comp has reached its first saturation point then. Everyone who was initially going to be a fan now is. It will be a lot harder to win significant gains from here.
AREH
Roar Guru
I came across a tweet detailing (for memory) that despite 13 additional H&A matches this season, compared to last, (43 to 56) aggregate crowd number has increased merely by about 3200.
anon
Roar Pro
A good season for a baseball team is 100 wins out of 162. They have 7 game play offs. You're not going to go 20-2 like an AFL team. It's a different games with many variables in particular starting pitching, whether a team was able to hit with runners on base. In the short term you can have results that don't reflect the true strength of the team despite doing the right things. T20 has a lot more variation in the results than the longer forms. By that I mean it's easier to win a T20 game than a Test match or ODI. A bad team never wins a Test, but has a sniff in a T20 match. But there's something very linear about T20. It feels like the same narrative every night. And it can be over very quickly if the top of the order doesn't fire. The side will meander to 130 or 140 and the side chasing will win have it down to a run ball with about 10 overs to go. Boring stuff. Baseball you're always in it unless it's really a blow out.
On the money
Roar Rookie
Whilst I agree with much of the content of this article, I think the issue is much bigger than just the BBL. It transcends the entire cricket schedule, the need for content for the broadcasters and the need to balance up player preparation for international cricket, player availability and player welfare. The secret to the success of the IPL is that it does not compete with any other cricket in India at the same time. A billion cricket mad locals helps a bit as well, but for 6 or so weeks it is all about the IPL. No distractions. The BBL needs the same clear air to operate in. Here is how I would structure up the summer: Mid Sep: JLT series. Gives fox cricket content as the footy codes are in their finals. Gives players a chance to press claims for ODI series: Early Oct: 5 ODI’s over 12 days. Kicks off the international summer of cricket. Mid Oct: Commence Sheffield Shield. Each state to play 8 games from mid October to weekend before Christmas. Gives all players plenty of red ball cricket to stake their test claim. Late Nov: 1st test of the summer. D/N at Gabba giving broadcasters prime time content. Early Dec: 2nd test Perth. Gives broadcasters prime time content. Mid Dec: 3rd test D/N Adelaide Late Dec: 4th test. Boxing Day Melbourne. Early Jan: 5th test. New Year test Sydney. All red ball cricket played at same time, giving best possible preparation for Australian test team. Dec 30th: commence BBL. Dec 31st: BBL double header Jan 1st: BBL double header Jan 2nd to 8th: single BBL games. At this point, all franchises have played 3 games and Australian test players are now available for the rest of the tournament. Next 4 weeks (until February 5th) 11 matches per week, taking tournament to semi final stage. Saturday and Sunday night semi finals (8th and 9th). All star game Thursday 13th. Aust players vs overseas players. BBL Final Friday 14th. Tournament starts 2 weeks later, reducing time for OS players. Gives most of test series clean air and maximises participation of Aust players in BBL. Late Feb: 3x T20 internationals. Late Feb play last two Rounds of the shield and shield final. Window for international tours to South Africa, NZ, WI etc. from late February. Such a itinerary gives plenty of contact for broadcasters with little overlap across the various forms of the game. It is worth a try.
Jack Russell
Roar Guru
Why? I can't tell you exactly why. But for whatever reason, they didn't. This isn't a hypothetical, they actually had a 20-20 state comp for a few years and it simply didn't have close to the traction that the BBL got. State of Origin is a ridiculous comparison. Otherwise you'd advocate for abandoning the NRL for a state based comp. It's telling that every other professional sport in this country has abandoned state v state competitions at that level.
Darrell Lrixe
Guest
Number five .. either get rid of pay per view on the weekends or add one frentinair match earlier / later in the same day .. give us some entertainment not frustration ...
John Allan
Guest
TV commentary team is ok except Mark Howard. After watching most of the 10,000 BBL games, I am still endeavouring to ascertain what he contributes. For those critical of the TV team, try Macquarie Sports Radio coverage of the BBL. Some of them sound like they're doing work experience. Amateurish in the extreme.
Sam
Guest
Exactly. If one of your bowlers is a James Faulkner or Dan Christian who can equally cart a quick fire 30 off 17 deliveries even better.
Larry1950
Guest
Isn't the real reason we have franchises that CA had to create something to sell to Ch10 for extra cash because Ch9 had broadcast rights for real cricket (test & one day) locked up. Then Ch7 got under everyone's neck when the rights became available and bought the lot, a decision they might regret once the ashes hype is over & they're trying to sell advertising during series like the Sri Lankan disaster in Brisbane where day one was a Thursday & the game ended before the Sunday & Australia Day Monday public holiday.
Larry1950
Guest
C'mon Chris, it's hard enough to watch live if the other channels aren't showing MAFS or My Kitchen Rules, who would watch a replay of the BBL, not even cricket tragics. Leigh Sales looks very interesting when up against the bar chat babbling of three ex cricketers disguised as a commentary team.
Larry1950
Guest
I'll declare it up front, I'm from Brisbane so was more interested in how the Heat went until I got BBL fatigue after a couple of weeks, even had games on the nights after a few test match days. Then got sick of the Heat's standard 'stand & deliver' style with no thought to the oppositions bowling style. They never really deserved a shot at finals because that night the lights went out they were dead ducks. No wonder Lynn has such a good strike rate, he slogs from ball one & either gets runs or he's out. Your 4th suggestion, less outfielders, is ludicrous. The game has almost morphed into baseball already, why not just go the whole hog & give the few outfielders left a glove? I'd prefer to see them bat 10 overs each in rotation if you want to change something and that's also a silly suggestion. BBL is a hybrid tv friendly game built for short attention span millenials & the fairly. young kids who can go & still get home to bed at a reasonable hour, it's not really cricket. Sit in the pool, take a crowd catch, dance for the big screen, watch a bit of slogging, that's about your night. I remember reading about American baseball clubs going on the road with the intention of finishing a 5 game series 3-2 up, thinking that was good enough. Don't want that mentality in our sport.
Rellum
Roar Guru
I am interested why you think business entities/franchises have traction with the kids while State teams don't? To me it is just down to how much CA bothered marketing one comp over the other and how one comp was on free to air and the other wasn't. But maybe kids are so used to doing what marketing types tell them to do they couldn't possibly understand what a State is. Of course State of Origin does prove that is not the case. The reasons we have franchises now is because the marketing people at CA wanted franchises and they wanted two teams in Sydney and Melbourne.
IAP
Guest
But who would tell us that it's the "rock and roll form of the game!" over and over again?
Harold
Guest
I could live with the music if he was at half the decibel level even my teenagers think its too loud. There have been a few blowouts this season - wouldn't have happened if it was on Nine (wink!). And if someone catches the ball in the crowd and a visiting player hit it - he's out but it must be a clear catch - derbies excepted.
IAP
Guest
That's exactly what I'd do if there wasn't restrictions - have two front-line bowlers, assume they'll bowl a 10 over spell each and play nine batsmen. I'd use two batsmen as part time spinners to give the front-liners a rest in the middle.
IAP
Guest
I agree that's an issue. I never know when it's on now.
Rellum
Roar Guru
I didn't say spread it through the whole season. But if we could schedule a round or two of Shield cricket in the middle then we can use that for Test preparation/selection whilst still having the BBL. That is impossible with the franchises.