Why CA needs the BBL Draft to be a success

Cricket fans, sit back and strap yourselves in.Tthe 12th edition of the Big Bash League will soon be hitting our screens and this year Cricket Australia has taken the step of introducing a BBL Player Draft aimed at bringing excitement back to Australia’s domestic Twenty20 competition.

This Sunday the first-ever Player Draft will take place. It was a ploy to attract bigger name players to the domestic competition that had seen viewership wain.

Attract players it did with almost 300 players representing 20 different countries putting their hands up to live the dream and be selected in the draft.

While there is no doubt that the draft will bring interest in to the upcoming 12th season, it remains to be seen whether a player draft will result in more attendees at the game or viewers watching on screens around the country.

The global pandemic we have all been through no doubt played a role in the last few lacklustre seasons, however, it remains no secret that the competition was struggling well and truly before the pandemic. The product had grown stale, the seasons had become too long, and it had become no different.

Compared to the Indian Premier League, where expansion teams have been added as it continued to grow and develop into the premier T20 competition on the globe, new domestic competitions in South Africa and the UAE have all seen the importance of the Australian T20 competition dwindle to stagnant levels.

Some of the country’s biggest players such as David Warner and Chris Lynn sent shockwaves through the Australian sporting landscape when they originally looked at travelling overseas skipping the Big Bash League season for more lucrative contracts elsewhere.

Cricket Australia was implored to step in – which they eventually did – however it is a problem that was completely Cricket Australia’s doing, falling into the same trap many sporting organisations across the country do.

Simply too scared to make changes, to try new things.

David Warner. (Photo by Matt King/Getty Images)

In 2011 Cricket Australia announced that an exciting new competition was being introduced to replace the then stagnant Twenty20 Big Bash – which had featured the six state teams play in a short T20 competition over the past six seasons – with the eight-team Big Bash League.

It was hailed as the dawn of a new era for Twenty20 cricket in Australia, a format while still in its infancy was taking the cricketing world by storm almost more importantly it brought with it a new audience.

Lights, fireworks and music built the atmosphere, ticket prices were affordable and all of a sudden you had families attending games of cricket, soaking up the atmosphere and enjoying the on-field action as some of the biggest names in world cricket travelled down under to see what all the fuss was about, while at the same time giving fans the ability to see some of these players without the international ticket fee costs usually associated with such an experience.

The issue is that was 12 years ago. Nothing has changed. It’s the same tournament, the same teams, just with an additional 30 games to the seasons to seemingly ‘milk’ the product for everything it is worth.

For so long Cricket Australia have shared their reluctance to the idea of the draft despite many sports journalists, cricket insiders and even players themselves calling for something to be added to the game at a local level.

There have been many ideas floated to try and help the game. What about expansion sides so there isn’t the constant talent sitting on the sidelines all season because they are surplus to the clubs’ actual needs? Cricket Australia says no.

Player Draft to try and get some of these international players floating around to other clubs? Cricket Australia says no.

Shorter seasons to bring the actual excitement back to the competition? Cricket Australia says no.

Lower ticket fees that have risen drastically over the past 12 years so that families can go back to affording to go and enjoy the game of cricket? Cricket Australia says no.

Open discussions with New Zealand Cricket and see if there is a way to merge the two domestic competitions into some sort of combined T20 comp, possibly with promotion/relegation, to try and fight the constant growth of the IPL and other international domestic competitions? Cricket Australia says no.

As the 12th edition of the Big Bash League begins to enter the countdown to the first ball being bowled, with star players originally looking to skip the tournament to follow lucrative options in other competitions across the world, and the reluctancy of Cricket Australia to listen to those they should – the fans – it is no stretch of the imagination to sit back and think that now they have introduced the Player Draft does the future success of the Big Bash League rest on the shoulders of the 300 players, representing 20 countries all vying for just a handful of list spots?

While cricket is a results-driven sport, and the Big Bash League is no different, surely the best result for Cricket Australia is for one of the current clubs to take a ‘gamble’ on one of these more obscure players on the list and them getting a real shot.

Does anyone have all the answers? No. But surely there are discussions to be had, which need to include all options on the table for the Big Bash League moving forward… otherwise it could be a case of ‘unlucky’ 13 for the BBL next year where fans, players and stockholders could finally turn their back on the games shortest format – at a domestic level at least.