Why cricket bosses won’t change BBL and TV schedules to make up for early Test finishes

For the third time this summer, lucrative cricket broadcast slots have been lost into the ether. Here’s what Cricket Australia has to say about it.

Cricket Australia is resigned to allowing key real estate go to waste with no plans in place to create flexibility in scheduling that would allow Big Bash League matches to fill the gaps left by early Test finishes.

All three of this summer’s Tests between Australia and Pakistan finished inside four days. While CA has occasionally in the past fixtured Test cricket head-to-head with the BBL, it has steered clear of doing so this summer in a bid to avoid the possibility of cannibalisation.

It is a gamble though, because when Tests conclude early, lucrative broadcast slots are effectively lost to the ether.

This happened on a Monday night in mid-December when the Perth Test ended early, the Saturday afternoon of December 30 that had been reserved for day five of the Boxing Day Test, and the afternoon of Sunday, January 7, rendered empty after Australia wrapped up the third Test the previous today.

Australia’s success this summer, winning all three Tests inside four days, has left TV channels without any cricket to show. Picture: Getty

When the BBL season was wildly disrupted by the pandemic two seasons ago, the governing body was willing to move games at late notice, but head of Big Bash Leagues Alistair Dobson said it was too hard to make a habit of doing so.

“The BBL has always managed itself around the international schedule and does a pretty good job of it. When there’s day-night Tests that can obviously take up prime time spaces that we know and we know that the popularity of Test cricket is still huge,” Dobson said.

“Generally day-night Test matches don’t take place inside the BBL window, or around the BBL season, this season was a bit of a quirk of the way that the summer of international cricket was scheduled due to the World Cup and other things, which generally doesn’t happen. So it’s not a problem we have to necessarily deal with often.

Would more flexibility with the summer cricket schedule help TV broadcasters? Picture: Getty

“And at the same time, creating too much flexibility in your matches is difficult just because putting on a game of cricket is pretty complex between broadcast and stadium and staffing and ticket sales, all those things.

“So we were able to do it to a degree in a Covid environment where we had to be flexible anyway.

“But it’s much more challenging when you’ve got everything locked and loaded for a game to even moving forward by an hour is somewhat problematic.

“When it’s a day contest, it’s not really a factor for us, because the best example of the Australian summer is a Test match during the day and an Australian game at night.

Day-night Tests further complicate what is already a complex scheduling battle. Picture: AAP

“That’s generally how our season operates.

“And when there is a day-night Test, the Perth Test this year, would have been an example where if you have complete flexibility, maybe you move the game on to day five when there’s when the Test finishes early.

“But that’s just that’s the reality. That’s generally not possible.”

In any case, Dobson has been buoyed by the upward trajectory of average BBL crowds and ratings in what is the first season since a reversion to a shorter season.

The precise BBL availability of Australian players between the Pakistan and West Indies Test series remains unclear, however this is less likely to be an issue in coming years given CA’s efforts to clear the period after the Sydney Test for the BBL most summers. That was an impossibility this summer given the late start to the home Tests, a result of the World Cup.

Originally published as Why cricket bosses won’t change BBL and TV schedules to make up for early Test finishes