Boston Consulting Group report calls for changes to cricket summer schedule, BBL private ownership

State cricket authorities have discussed moving Sydney’s iconic New Year’s Test as a new report calls for a radical shake-up to the summer schedule to allow more stars to feature in the BBL.

The Melbourne and Sydney Tests are likely to be ring-fenced despite a report commissioned by Cricket Australia recommending CA explore a summer shake-up that would maximise the involvement of Aussie stars in the Big Bash League.

A Boston Consulting Group report, presented to state cricket leaders this week, has encouraged CA to look at options that would provide as great a window as possible for Australia’s Test guns to play in the Twenty20 competition.

But batting icon Doug Walters has called for caution, urging the primacy of Test cricket.

The schedule advice is one of several findings from the leading consultancy firm, which has also pushed for CA to follow the lead of England by selling off minority stakes in its eight BBL clubs.

The twin moves of private ownership and clearing space in the calendar — both of which are only recommendations at this stage — would bring the league into line with other competitions around the world, including the Indian Premier League, South Africa’s SA20 and England’s The Hundred.

Sales of teams in The Hundred recently poured $2 billion into the English game.

It’s understood the report broadly finds the eight BBL clubs to be valuable propositions that would be enticing for private investment, a concept towards which there has been a general aversion within Australian sport.

But sources confirmed BCG has also advised that there is considerable upside in the value of the BBL which would be gained by freeing Australia’s top stars to play in the league.

Though there has been tinkering around the edges, including an ill-fated move deep into February seven years ago, the BBL has largely remained the domain of the school holidays window from mid-December to late January.

Mitch Starc has not played in the BBL for more than a decade.

Pat Cummins has played one BBL game since his Test comeback in 2017.

This has meant that Australia’s Test guns have been consigned to bit-part players in the competition.

In particular fast bowlers Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood have barely been sighted in the league.

Starc’s last appearance for the Sydney Sixers came more than a decade ago, while Cummins has played just one match for the Sydney Thunder since he returned to the Test arena in early 2017.

Even batters like Travis Head and Usman Khawaja, and off-spinner Nathan Lyon, have been spared considerable BBL duties in recent seasons given their only theoretical availability has tended to come at the end of the Sydney Test – a staple of the first week of January – and often sandwiched between several Test series.

Though it’s believed the report does not explicitly call for Boxing Day or New Year’s Tests to be shifted, the radical idea of the Sydney Test being moved has at least been brainstormed at state board level.

A shift to the timing of the SCG Test is considered unlikely.

Sources however have indicated that such a shift is unlikely to be seriously contemplated.

If the MCG and SCG Tests remain immovable objects, administrators will be seriously hamstring for options given CA must work within the broader global scheduling framework.

A recent World Cricketers’ Association report called for four 21-day windows to be blocked out annually for “core international cricket,” leaving the rest of the year as a free-for-all for short-form franchise leagues.

Walters, the Australian great who played 74 Tests from 1965 to 1981, said the calendar had to remain centred around Test cricket.

“It’s important the Test matches stay where they are,‘’ Walters said.

“The Big Bash should work around the Test dates and not the other way around. It would be a sad day if you had a situation where a Test was moved because of a T20 game.

“Test matches must remain the priority.‘’

Originally published as Boston Consulting Group report calls for changes to cricket summer schedule, BBL private ownership