Kardinia Park, Geelong, has hosted BBL warm-up games © Cricket Australia/Getty Images
James Sutherland, the Cricket Australia chief executive, has given a strong indication that the Big Bash League is set for further expansion, dangling the carrot of a Twenty20 team for the Geelong region by way of encouraging a healthy crowd for Kardinia Park’s international debut on Sunday.
Located around an hour’s drive south-west of Melbourne, Geelong has played host to BBL practice fixtures in recent times, and will step up further as a venue when Australia’s makeshift T20 team hosts Sri Lanka in the second of three matches – preluded by an encounter between the Australia and New Zealand women’s teams.
While Kardinia Park is likely to feature at least one BBL match next season as the number of matches expands, Sutherland spoke in terms of “when” not “if” in response to questions about the addition of a Geelong T20 side in future. “I know there’s a group here that’s very keen on continuing to develop the ideas around that,” Sutherland, a lifelong supporter of the Geelong Cats AFL team, said.
“We’re expanding the BBL next year in terms of number of matches. I’m not quite sure how long it will be before we expand the number of teams. But I do know that when we do, Geelong will be a very strong candidate.
“We’ve seen practice matches for the BBL down here and we’ve seen good crowds here before. But this is really the first major test – to have an international match here. We know there’s a lot of enthusiasm, culturally cricket is really strong down here, over 20,000 participants in the region. But I’d like to see on the weekend just how the community supports big-time cricket coming here.”
CA’s plans for the BBL have been carefully modulated over time, with the governing body conscious of not growing the number of teams too quickly in order to avoid the fates of other sports such as football, rugby league and basketball that grew the number of teams in Australian competitions before having to cut them back as local markets could not sustain them. Two extra matches per team next season is an early step in the expansionist direction.
“The expansion of the Big Bash League in number of games does present an opportunity,” Sutherland said. “I think we’ll have a bit of an indicator on Sunday to see the response of the local community and from Melbourne and other regional areas around here to see how much they embrace international cricket here, and who knows, it might well be Big Bash here next season as well.”
Cricket’s calendar, both international and domestic, is set for considerable change over the next few years as a result of the competing forces of changes to the structure of Tests, ODIs and T20 internationals and also the continued expansion of T20 leagues around the world. England and South Africa have unveiled new T20 tournaments in recent times, with the latter’s to be scheduled in November and December immediately prior to the BBL.
At the same time Sutherland has been selling the concept of a Test match league currently under discussion at the ICC. He has floated the possibility that numerous former certainties of the Australian home summer, like the Boxing Day and New Year’s Test matches, may no longer be guaranteed for Melbourne and Sydney as teams find themselves facing different obligations.
“I’d like to say they are [quarantined] but they’re not totally guaranteed,” Sutherland told the ABC. “I think we would like to see it unfold in such a way that we can secure those matches but it’s actually a very congested schedule through the traditional Australian summer.
“I think one of the good things is that visiting countries do really enjoy the experience of playing in a Boxing Day Test match and a New Year’s Test match in Sydney but that doesn’t necessarily guarantee that we’d be able to secure that, but we’d like to think we will be able to.”
Sutherland has also indicated he is not perturbed by the fact of the Australian Test side currently preparing for a tour of India while a T20 team plays at home, pointing to the success of Marcus Stoinis in New Zealand and the belated selection of Michael Klinger for the T20 matches as positive offshoots.
Daniel Brettig is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo. @danbrettig
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Source: ESPN Crickinfo