Lessons learned from winter sporting codes has BBL officials confident they can handle any potential COVID-19 concerns
Australia’s ability to get the COVID-19 pandemic under control has cricket officials confident the BBL will unfold as planned, but there will be no resting on laurels should swift action be needed
Cricket
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BIG Bash officials are confident they can move swiftly with contingency plans to complete this year’s tournament should they be thrown a coronavirus curveball.
BBL|10 kickstarts tomorrow night with the Hobart Hurricanes hosting defending champions Sydney Sixers at Blundstone Arena, the first of eight matches in 10 days in Tasmania.
A similar “bubble” will run concurrently in Canberra to open the tournament, before several teams shift to Queensland for matches either side of Christmas.
The fixture will then return to a more normalised schedule post New Year, but should a COVID-19 outbreak emerge in any region pre-planning has already been tabled to ensure there are no significant delays.
“We’re extremely excited to get the season underway on Thursday night here in Tasmania,
the first of 61 games played across the next seven or eight weeks around the country,” Cricket Australia’s Head of Big Bash Leagues Alistair Dobson said at the tournament launch.
“It’s a really ambitious schedule, we’ve taken lots of learnings from the winter codes around Australia and how they’ve been able to cope with really difficult circumstances.
“We will work really closely with state governments and Australian border force and the relevant authorities around Australia to enable us to move the competition around the country to take games into every market.
“We’ve got a pretty clear idea if we have to move. Clearly at the moment things are looking really strong and we are really confident being able to play [as planned].
“But the learnings we took from the other codes across winter as well, you just can never rest and you have got to always be thinking ‘if this happens, how do you respond to it?’
“We’ve got a pretty good idea where each of those games would go to if they need to.”
This year’s competition will also introduce several new rules.
An “X-factor” substitute will be available after the first 10 overs of the first innings, the powerplay has been split to allow the batting side to nominate two “power surge” overs after the 11th over and a “bash boost” bonus point is on offer for the side who has more runs after the completion of the 10th over.
The changes were met with mixed reviews from players and coaches, but Dobson believes it will add more excitement.
“We think the innovations we’ve brought in at the heart are relatively simple in terms of a 10 over run chase, or a change to the powerplay.
“Clearly if you’re a cricket fanatic you’re going to be able to analyse the strategy and get a lot out of it.
“But we think equally kids watching Big Bash cricket for the first time, they’re going to have other fun things to watch during the game.”
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