The Big Bash League made an absolutely inspired, genius decision in putting games on literally every day of the week for the entirety of the tournament.
Having a quick, easy-to-watch, over-by-10pm game of cricket on every day after you get home from work is a summer’s godsend. So logically the only thing better than that would be “slightly more of that.”
League administrators today confirmed that the tournament will be expanding by an extra 8 games in BBL07 next year, though they stopped short of giving any information on long-rumoured expansion franchises.
Each team will get one more home game in the new, expanded competition, which takes the total number of games played from 32 to 40. The league is also reportedly looking at taking the BBL into “non-traditional” markets, with league bosses mulling over the prospect of staging games outside of the major cities.
BBL boss Anthony Everard confirmed the move in a statement issued earlier today:
“The scheduling of the additional eight matches in a manner that complements the existing regular season fixture is aimed at encouraging more people to pick up a bat and ball and give cricket a go.”
“We haven’t yet finalised the locations of these additional matches yet, but we are working closely with clubs to explore options.”“A state-by-state approach will be taken to determine the most appropriate location to host this additional fixture, taking into account aspects including existing contractual obligations, participation and fan growth opportunities, and venue infrastructure.”“The opportunity to expand matches into non-traditional markets is not just limited to the men’s game. We are working to see how we can also schedule Women’s Big Bash League matches in these new venues, once they are finalised.”
This provides some headaches in scheduling, given the BBL overlaps with international test and ODI series in January. This season, the league’s hottest-performing stars were whisked away mid-season for international duties.
Nonetheless, it is a big move for the league which is only expanding in popularity. With the BBL and WBBL combined, over 100 games will be played next season. And with a massive TV rights bidding war looming, it’s a good time for the game’s domestic format, which is now the 7th highest attended professional sporting league (by average) in the world, even nipping at the heels of Major League Baseball in terms of average per-game attendance.
The BBL06 final, between the Perth Scorchers and the Sydney Sixers, is set to go down tomorrow evening from 7:15pm AEDST.
Source: Big Bash League.
Photo: Bradley Kanaris/Getty.
