Cricket Australia weighing up BBL expansion plans but major fight with states looms

For the first time in its history the BBL is weighing up plans to expand into new parts of Australia and even overseas, reveals BEN HORNE. But not everyone is on board.

Cricket Australia is seriously considering dropping a bombshell and expanding the Big Bash, but a major bun fight is already looming over the choice of a new ninth team.

Canberra has emerged as the clear early favourite, while New Zealand Cricket says it would also be open to talks should CA powerbrokers decide over the coming months that adding the BBL’s first ever expansion team is financially viable.

Discussions are at an embryonic stage, however, sources claim if the bold move to follow the AFL and NRL into expansion is given the green light, it’s possible expressions of interest could be sought in the coming months and a new team could enter the BBL as early as the Ashes year in two summers’ time.

Canberra’s ACT Government-supported bid to enter the competition has already triggered strong resistance from key states NSW and Victoria, while New Zealand’s prospects are instantly complicated by the fact they would only be interested in joining the BBL if given, not one, but two kiwi licenses.

Given it was only 12 months ago that CA reduced the number of Big Bash games and signed a new seven-year broadcast deal on that basis, the key to the expansion push is that teams would continue to only play 10 matches each and the season would still fit into the same neat seven-week window.

Cricket Australia chief Nick Hockley at last year’s broadcast deal announcement. Picture: Richard Dobson

NSW and Victoria – already servicing two BBL franchises each – are concerned a Canberra team would further drain their playing depth, but influential ACT Chairman Greg Boorer said the game needed to act in the best interests of the sport overall.

“I think people have got to go into this with an open mind. I think historically … people always seem to focus on the reallocation of the existing pie rather than growing the pie into the future,” Boorer told this masthead.

“If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got and perhaps a little bit of competition would actually be a good thing and would actually get everyone to lift their games a little bit and actually improve the competition.

“… My perspective on it is that I’ve made some inquiries and I’ve pushed for it and Cricket Australia has agreed to actually just do some work. What does a value accretive addition team look like? What does value accretive mean to Australian cricket?

“My understanding is Cricket Australia are doing some work and doing some modelling and working out what’s possible and what would be required to make that happen.”

New Zealand Cricket would have to move its Super Smash domestic T20 league from its current December-January window to November if it was to entertain a move to join the Big Bash League – but that’s not out of the question given the Super Smash’s mantra is all about developing New Zealand players and not trying to be a school holiday commercial success like the BBL.

The bigger barrier is New Zealand would want more than one franchise, taking the competition from eight teams to 10.

New Zealand’s Super Smash T20 tournament is not considered a deterrent. Picture: Getty

New Zealand chief executive Scott Weenink insists no talks have yet been held with Cricket Australia.

“If New Zealand Cricket was to join the Big Bash it would have to be on the basis of multiple teams and actually be an addition and a positive for New Zealand as a whole,” Weenink said.

“We’ve got huge respect for the Big Bash, it’s a fantastic competition. But for New Zealand teams that have gone into other Australian competitions like football, basketball and rugby league, while it’s been amazing for those teams, it hasn’t necessarily been great for the domestic leagues back in New Zealand and that’s something we’d always be wary of.

“… Whether it be two teams, a north island and south island or three teams Canterbury-Otago, Wellington and Auckland, that would be the only conceivable way it would be good for us and good for our cricket … in terms of that gateway of producing more White Ferns and Black Caps, which is ultimately what we see these domestic leagues as for.”

One move that has been categorically ruled out is relocating an underperforming team like the Sydney Thunder or Melbourne Renegades to a new region, with the focus firmly on nailing those massive metro markets.

On that basis, the Thunder may actually cease its current arrangement of playing two of five home games in Canberra, a move which would leave the ACT without any BBL, despite the capital’s strong history of fan support at matches and quality of the Manuka Oval surface.

Cricket NSW chief Lee Germon is against any expansion of the Big Bash at the present time, but particularly to Canberra.

“We’ve been pretty strong on our position which is that we’ve only just changed the structure of the Big Bash and reduced it from 14 down to 10 matches. We’ve had a good first season under the new structure and now is the time to really consolidate and build and optimise that,” Germon said.

“My own view is, I wouldn’t expand into Canberra as a market anyway. Primarily because I think if you were going to expand, any expansion needs to add value from a commercial proposition and from a playing pool proposition.”

The Thunder currently plays two of its five home games at Manuka Oval. Picture: Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images

Victoria chief executive Nick Cummins backed BBL chiefs for exploring expansion, but warned strict criteria needed to be put in place.

“I think it’s appropriate to talk about expansion now because it’s a five-year project … but I’d say any expansion needs to consider three criteria,” Cummins said.

“No.1 does it increase the total player base? No.2 does it take BBL to markets not already serviced by BBL?

“No.3 does it grow cricket’s revenue?

“And I don’t mean a reliance on Government money, which is tax payer money. We need to have a mature discussion about it rather than getting caught up in sentimentality.”

Other states are open to the concept of relocating the Thunder to Canberra but also remain lukewarm on adding new teams, a view shared by Test great Ricky Ponting.

However, Cricket Australia has the power to make a unilateral decision on expansion and do not require approval from the states. Broadcasters are not closed-minded about the concept.

Big Bash chief Alistair Dobson declined to comment on expansion specifically but conceded the competition is in a strong enough position to be open-minded about its future.

“The competition has had a really great season and has given us an opportunity to look at what the future might look like and be bold around our ambitions for the Big Bash,” Dobson said.

Detractors of Canberra as an expansion city point to the fact the capital is not included in the Five City Metro that governs free-to-air television ratings, however, Boorer – a successful businessman – warns that the region should not be underestimated.

As other sports like the A-League and Super Rugby have found out, expanding to overseas locations like New Zealand can be problematic in terms of cost, and Canberra does hold appeal for broadcasters in its proximity to Sydney and the atmosphere conveyed on television by full grandstands and terraces in a small stadium.

Crowds for Wellington Phoenix at Westpac Stadium have been sporadic. Picture: Masanori Udagawa/Getty Images

“If you think big picture, the national capital should actually have a more prominent role in Australian cricket given all the high commissioners, diplomats and Government that is here,” Boorer said.

“Manuka is one of the best boutique cricket grounds in the world and it looks really good on television. All the research shows that from a ratings perspective, if you turn the television on and the ground is full, everyone watches. Whereas if you turn on and there’s 10,000 people at any large cricket stadium, people think, ‘oh there’s not much doing here’ and they turn off.

“It’s a misnomer the way pure statistics represents the population of Canberra. Because it has a hard border, 500,000 is the population. But if it was reported like Greater Adelaide or Greater Sydney or Melbourne, the catchment of Greater Canberra from Wagga to Bateman’s Bay is around a million people and they’re not driving to Sydney to watch cricket, but they’re driving to Canberra.

“People underestimate how much money sloshes around Canberra at times from a corporate perspective. Because the Government spends so much money, there’s huge corporates here and they’re here all year around and there’s nothing in summer for corporates to get behind.

“The ACT Government is very ambitious and very motivated.

“The Australian cricket family would be leaving money on the table if they ignored this region on so many levels. I think we can really put together a compelling financial case.”

Originally published as Cricket Australia weighing up BBL expansion plans but major fight with states looms