Since 2011, there have been ideas floating around about Australia’s Big Bash League allowing private investment into their league. However, the resistance has come as Cricket Australia wanted to keep 100 per cent control over the league and scheduling control for the broadcasters.
However, Boston Consulting Group (BCG) was commissioned by CA have assess the current situation of the BBL. Last week, BCG submitted their report and also suggested a change in the scheduling of the league, which at this point starts mid-December annually.
CA CEO Todd Greenberg acknowledged allowing the private investments to make the league the next best league behind the Indian Premier League, and also that it would not go ahead if it were to displace the traditional Sydney New Year’s Test and Boxing Day Test in Melbourne
“I hail from Sydney so I’d like to return back there at one point in time,” Greenberg said on SEN Radio on changing the SCG Test. “So, no, it’s certainly not on the agenda.”
“Well that’s certainly the vision of everyone in cricket here in this country is to make sure that we run a league and we run a T20 tournament that is sitting just beside or behind or adjacent to the IPL,” Greenberg said.
“It’s going to be very hard to chase the IPL, given the scale of cricket in India, but unashamedly, we want to run a league that comes second. And to do that we’re going to need to make sure that player availability and player salaries are commensurate with everything else that goes on around the world, and there’s one thing you need for that, you need money, you need investment. We’d be naive if we weren’t asking ourselves these questions and making sure we’ve got an eye on what’s next,” he added.
Greenber did suggest that BBL Is in a good state: “Nothing has been decided at this point in time. The report does tell us that the BBL is in a very healthy position, but one thing we’re sure of is we don’t want to take that for granted. So it’s incumbent on us, as leaders of the sport, to look at what the future might hold for us.”
