Kardinia Park Trust chases BBL return

KARDINIA Park bosses are “well progressed” in their bid to bring Big Bash League cricket back to Geelong this summer.

The BBL will expand this summer to 59 games, with the Melbourne Renegades also keen to expand their foothold in Geelong after 23,586 turned out for the match at GMHBA Stadium last season.

While Geelong was overlooked for an international match this coming summer, Kardinia Park Stadium Trust chief executive officer Michael Brown said talks with BBL chiefs were going well.

“We’ve been in discussions after a really successful game last (season), where we had nearly 25,000 here,” he said.

“They’re keen to explore, so we’re in that process now.

“We’ve been very open that we’ll attract as many games as we can, and as much cricket as they can bring here.

“We also have locked in the new champions of the A-League (Melbourne Victory). They’re due for a game here, so we’re working with them.

“Delivering more and more content in the non-AFL time is really important for us, because the community gets to use what is an amazingly high-class facility.”

Asked about the likelihood of Big Bash cricket in Geelong this summer, Brown said: “We’re certainly well progressed in discussions”.

“We haven’t finalised that yet, but we’ve made it very clear and discussions have been strong,” he said.

“They’re not in a final position (to confirm), having just commenced their review of last year. But discussions so far have been really positive.”