Cricket Australia to introduce an international player draft for the BBL as the IPL secures $10bn for broadcast rights

The introduction of a draft for international players is set to give the Big Bash League a fighting chance in an already crowded market for domestic T20 competitions.

The draft could see international superstars like England’s Jos Buttler command a big salary to play in the BBL. Picture: Brett Hemmings - CA/Cricket Australia via Getty Images/Getty Images

Cricket Australia is set to introduce a draft for international players in the BBL and will pump in extra cash in a bid to keep the T20 tournament relevant and competitive, but the move comes in the wake of an incredible IPL broadcast rights deal that will see the lucrative competition carve an even bigger hole in the international game.

The Indian deal fetched approximately $10bn over five years for the IPL — 10 times what the entire Australian cricket rights sold for in the last agreement.

The deal was broken into separate packages for television and digital rights.

A single IPL match ($21.75m) is now worth more than a game in the English Premier League ($16.4m) and almost double what the BCCI earns for an international fixture.

The most concerning thing for cricket is the proposal to expand the number of IPL games from 60 to a maximum of 94 across the five-year time frame.

BCCI chiefs said this week they wanted an exclusive two-and-a-half-month window in the early years of the deal, but even that would not be enough to accommodate the expansion of games and franchises.

The plan is to move to 74 games in 2023 and 2024, 84 in 2024 and 2025 then up to 94 by 2027.

The IPL juggernaut continues to grow and will only benefit players like Australian captain Pat Cummins. Picture: Kolkata Knight Riders/Instagram

Players are already earning in excess of $2m a year to play in the tournament, which brings international cricket to a halt as players are given time to participate.

Meanwhile, the BBL is set to introduce a multi-tiered draft system with the platinum level players expected to be offered $340,000, amid suggestions Cricket Australia will offer a significant contribution to the contracts and control who qualifies for those deals.

There is understood to be a three-tiered system to the draft, with players ranked as platinum, gold, silver or bronze. Gold players will earn $260,000 for less than a month’s work, silver $175,000 and bronze $100,000.

This year’s BBL may benefit, however, from suggestions the one-day series against South Africa will be cancelled. That would free Australian stars to play — Cricket Australia does not make a window for its players to compete in its own domestic competition as it does for them to compete in the IPL.

Broadcasters have made clear their frustrations about the limited availability of Australian.

The BBL was already battling declining crowds and ratings before Covid hit and industry experts suggest its re-sale value has diminished since the last broadcast rights deal, which saw it moved from Channel Ten, expanded and sold to Fox Cricket and the Seven Network.

News that the streaming rights are now more valuable than television packages may indicate room for growth in the next contract.

With Test players regularly unavailable, international superstars like Rashid Khan have long been the BBL’s main attraction. Picture: Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images

International players had been turned off the BBL by the expansion of the tournament with little increase in remuneration, but the increased money on offer in a draft could see them compete for at least part of the tournament.

Competition for big-name stars will become more intense next season with the UAE announcing plans for a 34-game tournament from January 6 to February 12 with top-tier players offered almost $500,000 tax free.

That tournament plans to use nine international players in each of its six franchises. At the same time, South Africa is set to kick off its own domestic T20 tournament.

The IPL’s expansion appears inevitable, with BCCI secretary Jay Shah confirming it will look to expand its exclusive window from 2024.

“We are having discussions with various stakeholders,” Shah said. “There are also multiple proposals for all the IPL franchises of playing friendlies overseas. That idea is being seriously contemplated, but for that we also need to speak to other boards as we would need to know the schedule of international players.”

Shah offered some comfort to fans of international cricket concerned as to where bilateral series fit in its plans

“The BCCI is committed to international cricket,” he said. “And it’s not just about India versus Australia or India versus England marquee series, we are committed to playing even the smaller nations.”

David Warner hasn’t played in the Big Bash since 2013 but has more regularly been able to participate in the IPL. Picture: Matt King/Getty Images

Former Channel Ten head of sport David Barham, who authored a review into the BBL, said the IPL deal also exhibited a move towards the primacy of streaming rights, with a breakdown showing they are now more valuable than the television deal.

“It’s an incredible deal and it just shows the shift toward streaming is unstoppable,” Barham said. “People want to watch things in any place at any time now.”

Sports and media rights lawyer Dean Kino said the IPL deal reflected the value of the tournament.

“It’s a clear signal that media rights values for high-quality content show no sign of abating and that the appetite for great cricket content – bilateral or domestic T20 – continues to rise in markets where there continues to be robust investment,” Kino said.

“More importantly, in terms of both other domestic leagues and bilateral cricket, the IPL media rights results are a clear reminder that if governing sports bodies structure and schedule their content to cater to what their audiences want, the financial rewards will follow, as opposed to focusing on maximising short term rights fees, which invariably robs the audiences of what they want.

“What we’ve seen is that if all you do is focus on the short term rights fees, there won’t be as much of that coming in five years later unless it’s driven by the luck of market forces and relying on luck isn’t a great strategy for sports that rely heavily on broadcast revenue. The market has spoken to this for decades; focusing on the fees rather than the optimal content for audiences is a sure path to second-tier rights fees.”

– The Australian

Originally published as Cricket Australia to introduce an international player draft for the BBL as the IPL secures $10bn for broadcast rights