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Opinion
Many cricket fans are suffering withdrawal symptoms now that Australia’s home Test summer is over.
There is a glaring gap in the schedule after the South Africans withdrew from their January ODI series so their best players would be available for their new T20 league.
The Australian men’s team does not reappear on our TV screens until February 9 at the AEDT friendly time of 3pm for the heavyweight four-Test series in India.
Rusted-on cricket supporters still have options – there’s the BBL as well as six women’s international white-ball fixtures against Pakistan to keep us entertained.
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For those snobs who look down their nose at these options, now’s the time to give each of them a chance.
Aaron Hardie. (Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)
The Big Bash League is experiencing something of a mini resurgence this season due to a few reasons.
Most importantly, the competition is competitive, which is not always the case. Perennial powerhouses Perth Scorchers and Sydney Sixers are again at the top of the ladder but six of the eight teams are genuine chances of lifting the trophy.
Adelaide Strikers, Sydney Thunder and Melbourne Renegades are within striking distance of the two top teams while Hobart Hurricanes have talent and experience across their roster to make them capable of knocking over any opponent.
Brisbane Heat and Melbourne Stars are in the doldrums heading into the final fortnight.
And with the Test players on deck, it revives interest in not only the casual fan who craves name recognition but it should at least tempt the traditional red-ball aficionados to tune in to see how the likes of David Warner, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Travis Head and Steve Smith fare in the game’s shortest format.
Watching Labuschagne getting belted for 20 off his solitary over for the Brisbane Heat on Wednesday night was clearly not great for him but moments like that drive interest and that more than anything is what the BBL needs at the moment.
The BBL is in a worldwide race to the the second-best T20 league behind the IPL and with new contenders emerging in South Africa and the UAE in a similar slot on the calendar, it’s the most important time in the competition’s history to be firing on all cylinders.
Marnus Labuschagne plays a shot for the Heat against Perth on Wednesday night. (Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)
Last week’s announcement of the new TV rights deal for Cricket Australia with the BBL shrinking from 61 matches to 43 is another timely boost.
The less is more approach will not only alleviate some viewer fatigue, it will also help attract international players who have been turned off by the lengthy commitment it takes to travel to Australia for the BBL.
Rival leagues are much shorter and therefore more of a lure for the T20 guns for hire who live many months of the year out of a suitcase and that’s before you factor salaries into the equation.
Did the BBL really lose that much in star quality mid-season when various players jetted off for South Africa and the UAE?
Colin Munro, Faf du Plessis, James Vince, Alex Hales, Trent Boult. They’re all quality players but not irreplaceable when you’ve got the Test stars coming back in.
The Strikers are the team that will feel the effects of mid-season departures the most with Chris Lynn and Rashid Khan bound for the Middle East but even then, the additions of Travis Head and Alex Carey will not only offset the impact on the team, those two household names will also ensure plenty of attention remains on Adelaide.
As an aside, Socceroos coach Graham Arnold was right and wrong during the World Cup when he claimed his team united Australia like no other.
Travis Head of Australia bats. (Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)
Yes, every four years we have wonderful scenes like we witnessed at Melbourne’s Federation Square where football fans share their common passion for the Socceroos at raucous watch parties to cheer the side on from afar.
But does any Socceroo have the recognition of any member of the Australian cricket team? Carey and Head would be at the low end for public profiles in the Test team but are still more well known than any Socceroo or player from any sports side in the nation.
And unlike the AFL and NRL big names who enjoy adulation and attention in their geographically based markets, the Aussie cricketers have nationwide appeal.
Mid-season player exits will be more of a problem next summer and beyond for the BBL when the national team resumes playing Tests and white-ball fixtures through January and you don’t have an open slate of Australian stars filtering back to the domestic scene.
If you’re still not convinced the BBL is worth watching, then that’s OK too because it probably means it’s not for you. As in, the target audience for the competition is unapologetically the youngest demographics.
The BBL, if nothing else, serves a function as the gateway to cricket for kids to stick with the sport into adulthood, eventually expanding their attention spans beyond a few hours to the whole day required to watch an ODI or the marathon investment that is following a Test.
Unfortunately for the dyed-in-the-wool followers of the men’s national team who are still yet to spend some serious couch time watching the all-conquering women’s side, this upcoming series against Pakistan won’t be the greatest showcase.
Meg Lanning plays a pull shot. (Photo by Phil Walter-ICC/ICC via Getty Images)
The T20 World Cup in South Africa will be a better advertisement of women’s international cricket.
While the Australians are deserved clear leaders at the top of the T20 and World Cup rankings after claiming both trophies, the Pakistani side is developing after only receiving a decent level of investment from the national board in recent years.
Pakistan are ninth and seventh in the ODI and T20 rankings respectively so they probably won’t give the returning Meg Lanning’s team too much of a run for their money.
But neither did the West Indies or South African men’s team in the five Tests in Australia this summer but attendances or TV ratings were still strong despite the lopsided contests.