BBL trailblazers including Brett Lee and David Warner open up on how much the game has changed cricket

As BBL14 gets closer, the original trailblazers of the firework format have opened up on how much the game has changed cricket. Plus the league’s field of dream plans for the future of T20.

Designated hitters, multiple overs from the same end and double play run-outs.

These are just some of the possibilities in a literal field of dreams for the future of T20 cricket in Australia as the BBL continues to evolve.

The short-form fireworks format of cricket has always been a place for the sport’s great innovators to shine.

Think early game changers like David Warner, Glenn Maxwell and Brett Lee who were quick to realise the differences in T20 and the way the game needed to be played.

Fast forward to today and you can see the trail they have blazed for the likes of Matt Short, Jake Fraser-McGurk and Sean Abbott.

Glenn Maxwell has been a game changer for BBL. Picture: Daniel Pockett/Getty Images

And according to one of the game’s most creative minds, the BBL has plenty of room to grow, adapt and become even more exciting.

Veteran coach and cricket consultant Trent Woodhill has driven much of the innovation in both the BBL and The Hundred competition in the UK.

Woodhill said it was important that T20 cricket didn’t stand still.

“The BBL was brilliant last year, what else can we bring into it?” he asks.

“Multiple overs from one end would be great. I don’t like players running for no reason at all.

“I love seeing highlights packages around batting, bowling and fielding. Not inconsequential running.

“If we bowled multiple overs from each end, it would speed it up for sure. It would allow players to have more energy to execute their skills.”

While a couple of his other ideas have their origins in baseball, Woodhill is adamant he isn’t interested in mere gimmickry for the game’s future.

Matt Short is one of a few rising BBL stars. Picture: Mark Brake/Getty Images

“I’d love a designated hitter. Imagine Mitch Marsh being able to rest that body in between Tests or after Tests and just come out and bomb sixes. I think that’s pretty exciting. We don’t need to see him field,” Woodhill said.

“Same with bowlers. If we had a bowler who could just play as a quick and bowl gas ... refining the game is I think the job of T20 cricket, rather than settling on a format that lasts another 100 years.

“I’d love to see double play run-outs. My goal is to see two batsmen run out at the same time.

“We saw in World Series Cricket the advent of clothes, ball changes colours, I think we should always be looking to innovate. And I’ve always come from that position as a high-performance coach rather than as someone who’s just into gimmicks.”

Aussie master blaster turned Test star Warner, who returns to the BBL this year as captain for the Sydney Thunder, agrees with the sentiment that T20 as a format can have a major impact on the game as a whole.

“People are playing ramp shots and reverse sweeps now in Test cricket, and a lot earlier on in one-day cricket – not just against spinners, it’s against fast bowlers,” he said.

“(They) see that there’s runs behind the keeper as well now which is good, it is risk versus reward.

“I think if you play it consistently, and you’re good at it, and you practice it and it looks natural... I think it’s a good string to your bow to have for a player.”

Former pace ace Lee was happy to see his fellow Fox Cricket commentator Warner back in the BBL, saying he would bring a level of excitement to the competition.

“He’s box office Davey Warner and has been with every format of the game,” Lee said.

“Not only for Australia but across the world. Indian Premier League and all that.

“To have someone of his credentials, of his ability, even though he’s in his mid-30s, he’s still definitely got what it takes to flourish in this environment and I think spectators will really appreciate someone of the class of David Warner. I think he’s going to really lift this BBL season.”

As for innovation in the BBL, Lee said it was not just the realm of batsmen.

“Always the talk in T20 cricket is generally about the batsmen. About how inventive they are and the new strokes they’ve come up with,” he said.

“But from a bowling point of view, I think a lot of bowlers now have learnt to be able to really hit that yorker and bowl that wide-line yorker. Vary their pace.

Brett Lee says bowlers are now facing more pressure. Picture: Mark Evans

“People might say, ‘well that’s been happening in one-day cricket for a number of decades’ but the thing I have found is bowlers now are under a lot more pressure because batsmen are moving around the crease.

“So they’ve adapted beautifully. To be able to hit that perfect yorker, but also too, just to work on their skills.

“I’ve always said with T20 cricket, you have to have three deliveries that you can fall back on, because your bouncer is not always going to work; your yorker is not always going to work.

“The wide-line yorker might not be coming out, so you have to have three up your sleeve. “Hopefully they all work together on the night and that’s when you pick up wickets, but generally you can fall back on at least one.

“The bowlers these days work extremely hard on their variations and work on executing their strengths and that may be under pressure being able to nail that perfect ball.”

Perth Scorchers quick Matt Kelly said “as a bowler, anything to help the bowlers would be good” when it comes to changes to the game.

However, he pointed to the power surge as a great addition to the BBL.

Introduced in 2020, the concept has given batting teams the ability to replicate power play fielding restrictions outside the early overs a game, handing them a tactical edge.

“That’s a really different element of the game, I think that’s something that potentially could be incorporated into international cricket,” he said.

“I think it’s in a pretty sound position at the moment to be honest.”

Former Test quick Andy Bichel, now an assistant coach with Queensland and reigning BBL champion Brisbane Heat, has an interesting perspective on the way the BBL and T20 has impacted tactics through other formats of the games.

He said particularly batting innovations had made captains more cautious.

But he believes the tactics needed to succeed in cricket’s shortest form have helped put some skippers ahead of the game in Tests and one-day cricket.

“I think captains get very defensive now. If someone plays a ramp or someone plays a pull shot, you can see captains putting fielders out there straight away,” Bichel said.

“It’s all to do with T20 cricket, because potentially they are very good at that shot.

“Three slips, a gully and a point... in Test cricket, you have got to be good to hold that now because they are wanting fielders in strange positions to try and manipulate the mind of the batter.

“That’s the part that T20 has brought to Test cricket which in a way, makes Test cricket really exciting.”

Bichel said while state academies were still focused on producing Test cricketers, there was merit in putting more time into BBL academies to fast-track the country’s next white-ball talents.

“We are still producing the Nathan McSweeneys for Test cricket, but there’s nothing like playing in front of a packed house at the Gabba during the Christmas period. I think that’s what our young players are aspiring to,” he said.

Originally published as BBL trailblazers including Brett Lee and David Warner open up on how much the game has changed cricket