Big Bash Future

[dumb]

One thing I've really started missing is the ODI Tri-Series over January, I think CA could do worse than giving that another go (ensuring it is broadcast on FTA of course). Scale back the ticket prices and the fun police to get the crowds and atmosphere back. With the amount of opposition fans that usually flock to games in most Australian cities nowadays I don't think neutral games would be a huge problem, particularly with the value of TV rights for the comp in the subcontinent.

I wonder about something like on alternate years, a best of 3 between Australia and Australia A, swapping between 20-20 one year and 50 over the next.
Not as a replacement for anything but if the season was ever shortened.

With well defined rules on teams so that things like players being promoted from the 2nds team only to be 12th man in the 1sts doesn't happen.

Or watch a BBL XI take on the pantomime villains, Australia.

 

[eddiesmith]

Really needs to be scaled back to a school holiday only comp. Kick it off on New Years Eve and get it wrapped up by the end of January at the latest. However I really think the novelty factor of has worn off and I'm not sure having bigger stars would make a massive difference.

One thing I've really started missing is the ODI Tri-Series over January, I think CA could do worse than giving that another go (ensuring it is broadcast on FTA of course). Scale back the ticket prices and the fun police to get the crowds and atmosphere back. With the amount of opposition fans that usually flock to games in most Australian cities nowadays I don't think neutral games would be a huge problem, particularly with the value of TV rights for the comp in the subcontinent.

Or play the neutral games at some smaller venues. Canberra, Hobart and Junction Oval. Be great to watch an ODI at the Junction.

Or when McGowan is a pain just let Perth have Bangladesh v Afghanistan games

 

[Teen Wolf]

One thing I've really started missing is the ODI Tri-Series over January, I think CA could do worse than giving that another go (ensuring it is broadcast on FTA of course). Scale back the ticket prices and the fun police to get the crowds and atmosphere back.

Or play the neutral games at some smaller venues. Canberra, Hobart and Junction Oval. Be great to watch an ODI at the Junction.

My guess is, starting from next season, plenty more ODIs will be played in January...

They will be the kind which are already shown on free-to-air television, played at a mix of major and boutique venues (Adelaide Oval and the Junction both have upcoming fixtures, btw) with cheap ticket prices.

If that's not to your liking, fine. But paywalls and expensive admission fees are part and parcel of being a snob.

 

[The Fonz]

When it was flying there were some amazing games such as this one

AS vs SS Cricket Scorecard, 14th Match at Adelaide, December 31, 2015

Live Cricket Scoreboard: Get Adelaide Strikers vs Sydney Sixers 14th Match, cricket scorecard, Big Bash League 2015/16 dated December 31, 2015.

www.espncricinfo.com

The quality of games was far superior. The amount of crazy tight finishes has decreased.

So the on field product has declined.

Add to this:
Stupid gimmicks
No name players/no big name stars

And it's natural for interest to wane.

As I was watching Chris Lynn against the Thunder I wondered - where is the next generation of Lynns? Who are the new young guns? There was Oliver Davies but he's injured. The competition should showcase exciting young cricketers- are there any to showcase?

 

[KAYNE]

What are the TV ratings like? Feel like this might be more relevant with COVID hanging around.

Also the start times are stupid, this cricket is aimed at a younger generation yet kids can't go due to the late state/very late finish. Would love to take my daughter to a game but is to young to stay up. I am in Hobart for a game that starts a 6 so will go to that. Will be interesting to see if there is a bigger crowd for that.

Also pre christmas is such a busy time for everyone, trying to fit in a cricket game is really difficult.

 

[Voice of the G]

What are the TV ratings like? Feel like this might be more relevant with COVID hanging around.

Also the start times are stupid, this cricket is aimed at a younger generation yet kids can't go due to the late state/very late finish. Would love to take my daughter to a game but is to young to stay up. I am in Hobart for a game that starts a 6 so will go to that. Will be interesting to see if there is a bigger crowd for that.

Also pre christmas is such a busy time for everyone, trying to fit in a cricket game is really difficult.

Should start after xmas and in the school holidays.Will be interested to see the crowd attendance in Hobart on xmas eve with a 3.30PM start.

 

[Nuggetz]

Wonder how the covid cases increasing will impact on crowd figures during the school holiday period

 

[Pippen94]

What are the TV ratings like? Feel like this might be more relevant with COVID hanging around.

Also the start times are stupid, this cricket is aimed at a younger generation yet kids can't go due to the late state/very late finish. Would love to take my daughter to a game but is to young to stay up. I am in Hobart for a game that starts a 6 so will go to that. Will be interesting to see if there is a bigger crowd for that.

Also pre christmas is such a busy time for everyone, trying to fit in a cricket game is really difficult.

Still usually top rated show by demo. Crowds must be pandemic related.

Windbags here saying same thing for 15 years

 

[Coops93]

One of the best things about these sorts of leagues is star players, of which there's very few this year. Could be covid related, but also scheduling related with several international series going on right now. International stars are a massive drawcard and a good start would be scheduling the tournament in a way that allows the Australian players to play at least a few games, preferably towards finals. Cummins bowling to Warner for example would be excellent viewing.

At the moment there's several club cricket standard players getting around, and while it's good exposure for young players it's also not very interesting for viewers to see these guys getting pummelled.

If attracting more talent is indeed too difficult or can't be done, culling 1 or 2 teams would help. Probably the extra Sydney/Melbourne teams.

 

[Voice of the G]

One of the best things about these sorts of leagues is star players, of which there's very few this year. Could be covid related, but also scheduling related with several international series going on right now. International stars are a massive drawcard and a good start would be scheduling the tournament in a way that allows the Australian players to play at least a few games, preferably towards finals. Cummins bowling to Warner for example would be excellent viewing.

At the moment there's several club cricket standard players getting around, and while it's good exposure for young players it's also not very interesting for viewers to see these guys getting pummelled.

If attracting more talent is indeed too difficult or can't be done, culling 1 or 2 teams would help. Probably the extra Sydney/Melbourne teams.

For the young guys you mention not sure whether this type of cricket helps in their developments in the longer form of the game and I presume a young guy like Bryce Street would not play it and would go back to club cricket which would be better for him.Some good examples of young guys playing it at the moment would be guys like Sutherland and Jake Fraser Mc Gurk.

 

[John Smith92]

One of the best things about these sorts of leagues is star players, of which there's very few this year. Could be covid related, but also scheduling related with several international series going on right now. International stars are a massive drawcard and a good start would be scheduling the tournament in a way that allows the Australian players to play at least a few games, preferably towards finals. Cummins bowling to Warner for example would be excellent viewing.

At the moment there's several club cricket standard players getting around, and while it's good exposure for young players it's also not very interesting for viewers to see these guys getting pummelled.

If attracting more talent is indeed too difficult or can't be done, culling 1 or 2 teams would help. Probably the extra Sydney/Melbourne teams.

Aside from anything else it doesn't help being held during the southern summer when us, NZ and SA are all hosting internationals so hardly any current big name players could make it even if they wanted to.

 

[ioppolo]

When it was flying there were some amazing games such as this one

AS vs SS Cricket Scorecard, 14th Match at Adelaide, December 31, 2015

Live Cricket Scoreboard: Get Adelaide Strikers vs Sydney Sixers 14th Match, cricket scorecard, Big Bash League 2015/16 dated December 31, 2015.

www.espncricinfo.com

The quality of games was far superior. The amount of crazy tight finishes has decreased.

So the on field product has declined.

Add to this:
Stupid gimmicks
No name players/no big name stars

And it's natural for interest to wane.

As I was watching Chris Lynn against the Thunder I wondered - where is the next generation of Lynns? Who are the new young guns? There was Oliver Davies but he's injured. The competition should showcase exciting young cricketers- are there any to showcase?

Holy shit, that game was five years ago? Feels like not long ago at all.

 

[Marstermind]

Scheduling a game that will end around 12.30 in the morning? It's like they want it to fail.

 

[legend166]

They're not going to cut down on games. I think compressing it wouldn't be the worst idea, start it around the 20th of December, play two games a day (4:30pm, 7:30pm), final on Australia Day.

It's not really until you have kids that you realise never ending night games is not great for growing the sport.

Also not overreacting to low crowds during a global pandemic is probably a good idea.

 

[holybishop]

Scheduling a game that will end around 12.30 in the morning? It's like they want it to fail.

This one is excusable. It's supposed to be a Perth home game, so it's timed for our TV prime time.

 

[to1994]

Scheduling a game that will end around 12.30 in the morning? It's like they want it to fail.

The quality of the competition is about on par with everything else on TV at that time.

 

[akkaps]

8 teams is too many for the BBL. There is not enough depth in Australia for quality T20 games. They tried to replicate the IPL, but all the other T20 leagues around the world are 5-6 teams, and I think the quality of cricket would go up if there were less teams. I never saw the point of having two teams in Sydney and Melbourne, because in the first season, it was just the state teams playing for their T20 teams with NSW and Vic being split in two

 

[The Fonz]

Another underwhelming Gades performance - numbers 4-7 scoring 18 from 26.
Then did well to get to 150 but went nowhere defending it.
That Will Sutherland 2(3) and 2 overs for 19 gets a game is an indictment on everything.
What's fascinating is that statistically the Gades and Thunder are the 2 worst teams.
Together share 6 wooden spoons.
But yet the only time they made the final, they both beat the Stars

 

[Teen Wolf]

8 teams is too many for the BBL. There is not enough depth in Australia for quality T20 games. They tried to replicate the IPL, but all the other T20 leagues around the world are 5-6 teams, and I think the quality of cricket would go up if there were less teams. I never saw the point of having two teams in Sydney and Melbourne, because in the first season, it was just the state teams playing for their T20 teams with NSW and Vic being split in two

Once again it comes back to meeting the priorities of broadcasters. 8 teams enables at least one game every night for ~6 weeks. Can't do that with 6 teams flying all over the country--players aren't robots and they need rest days (or so the ACA says). 2 teams each from Melbourne and Sydney also means a greater ratio of games appealing to the 2 major TV markets which are the lifeblood of the league.

And by the way: England's top T20 league has 18 teams, the IPL is returning to 10, South Africa have 8 and the Hundred is also made up of 8.

 

[Johnny Bananas]

I think they should delineate the summer by months for different forms of the game. It's an advantage having things like the Boxing Day Test, where the public knows what to expect and when, so extend that level of certainty over the summer.

October - Shield, Test series against a lower-ranked nation to hopefully open the summer with a victory.
November - Shield, T20I series against a stronger nation, begin Test series against high-ranked nation.
December - Domestic one-day cup, end Test series against high-ranked nation. The Boxing Day Test should always be the 4th or 5th Test in the series.
January - Big Bash, standalone. This is the showpiece tournament and it could attract a lot of attention if it had the best players in it.
February - Shield, ODI and T20I series or tournament.

Also, I can't imagine CA would want to share the revenues, but the BBL would get even more interest if it functioned as NZs major T20 league too. If Australia had their best players free in January and could persuade NZ to do the same, there'd be enough talent for an extra Australian team and three NZ teams, for a 12 team tournament. That might spark some interest.

 

[The hands of stone]

What's Craig Simmons doing these days ?

 

[Mr Taswegian]

It's going to be interesting to see the crowd in Hobart tonight,so far this season Hobart's biggest crowd has been 5700.I think the Jackjumpers are another thing that has had an impact on the crowds down here with all their games sold out to date and the new years day game is in direct competition with the Hurricanes.

 

[Cleavy]

What's Craig Simmons doing these days ?

looking for "all you can eat" restaurants?

 

[Oliver09]

When the BBL started there were still the players from the dominant era getting around at the tailend of their careers. The likes of Warne, Hayden, Ponting, even MacGill all played a year or 2, Brett Lee and Katich even longer. Hussey, Watson, Haddin also kept playing for multiple seasons once their Australian days were numbered, Hodge and Hogg played for the first 6 or 7 years as well. It created a depth that just isn't there anymore. On top of that the internationals that came out did seem to be of a higher profile than is the case now.

The T20 World Cup stuffed scheduling up for this season but this is what a season should look like in the future
- Tests need to start earlier around mid November. This would still give time for each state to have 3 or 4 Shield games, enough time to gauge form. Shield cricket can continue until the end of the 2nd Test, maybe a week later.
- The first 3 Tests this year could've been
Bris 18-22 Nov
Perth 26-30 Nov (or Hobart)
Adel 9-13 Dec
BBL started on Dec 5 this year and went into a break because of the Adelaide Test being d/n. A fixture like this can avoid that. The BBL instead would start on the 17th with a week of games before Xmas. Already it's a 10 day shorter tournament which would mean
- Making better use of double headers. Have one on NYE and NY day, 4.00 first game and 7.30 for the second. Boxing Day in Perth is a winner as the second game but there's no need to always rely on the WA time difference. Use WA as the second game when there's the Test matches in Melbourne and Sydney, use the 4.00 slot at least once on the weekend when it doesn't clash with the Melbourne & Sydney Tests. Once Tests are over the games that go regional can be played during the day, say 2.30-3.00. No need to be playing night games at Coffs Harbour, play it in the day. Geelong shouldn't have cricket full stop, the ground isn't suitable. Play it in Bendigo or Ballarat, the crowds will turn up. A few more games at the city venues won't hurt either. TV rights mean the season is going to stay at it's current level of games. Double headers are the only way to compact the season. This would also allow the h&a season to finish on or around Australia Day then a week or so of finals. A shorter season will also attract overseas players.
- Have the Sydney Test as the last obviously but get it started on the 2nd of January. Adelaide Test finishing on the 13th gives a nice break before Boxing Day so going B2B shouldn't be a problem.
- Once the Sydney Test is over the Test players join their BBL sides by Jan 10.
- Players who don't join a BBL team don't get the required clearance to play IPL off CA. The current international players don't seem to care much for BBL and most don't bother signing contracts, this would change that attitude. For all the talk of lack of overseas star power the best star power we have are our own players. They need to play the Australian domestic T20 comp ahead of all others.
- Once BBL is over in early Feb then the ODIs can be played and T20 internationals as well, the Shield would also resume.

 

[burge13]

They cater to children. The entire thing is aimed at them. No real shocks something aimed at 8 year olds sucks

Start BBL after the test series so all those players are available. That gets 12 top players back into the tournament for depth

Internationals need to be better than county plodders. If you arent selling tickets off name value, why bother bringing them out.

Gimmicks have to go. So stupid but this is part of the aiming it at children...

By starting after xmas more Internationals will come. They dont want to spend christmas away if they dont have to

Shorten it to a month. Cram the games in, do back to backs or even triple headers on weekends. Most importantly though is getting good players back in. Far too many local players who arent any good getting a run.