BBL gets new-look final five

Top two get the double chance after last season’s Hobart farce

THE Big Bash League will launch a radical new five-team finals series this summer that aims to provide a greater reward for the top two teams.

The new five-game finals format will give the teams that finish first and second a double chance and the winner of their qualifier battle a week to prepare for the final.

There will be no games on Christmas Day, but the Hobart Hurricanes will host the Melbourne Renegades in the afternoon on Christmas Eve at Blundstone Arena.

The Australian Cricketers’ Association yesterday welcomed the new five-team finals system and shortened regular season that will see 56 games played in 42 days.

In the new finals format, fourth and fifth will kick off the series in the eliminator on January 30, followed by the qualifier between first and second on January 31 from which the winner heads straight to the final.

The third-placed team will play the winner of the eliminator in the knockout final, while the loser of the qualifier between first and second will battle the winner of the knockout in the challenger final for a place in the decider.

Head of Big Bash Leagues Alistair Dobson said the league wanted to give the teams that finished on top greater reward.

“It’s an amazing quirk of history that the team finishing first at the end of the season has only won it once and the team finishing third or fourth has won it more often, so we want to reward teams finishing first and second as well as we can,” Dobson said.

It follows the Hobart Hurricanes’ exit from the finals last summer having dominated the regular season.

Dobson defended the decision to have more teams playing in the finals than not.

“It’s actually harder for fifth to win it this year than it was for fourth to win it in the previous season,” Dobson said.

“You have to win four finals to win it from fifth and if a team goes on a run like that at the end of the season then they probably deserve to win it.”

Victorian cricket fans will have to wait until January 4 for a rematch of last year’s final between the Melbourne Stars and Melbourne Renegades, at the MCG.

Dobson said scheduling and venue considerations meant the Melbourne derby could not be played any earlier in the season.

“There is a whole range of considerations in the scheduling, the availability of the MCG through the Boxing Day Test, the ability to spread home games across the season … that’s just the way that it fell this year,’’ Dobson said.

Renegades coach Andrew McDonald said the team was looking forward to starting the season in Geelong.

“Our membership and fan base in Geelong is strong and growing quickly, so to open the season [at Kardinia Park] will be a great way to begin our campaign,” McDonald said.

“From a playing roster perspective, the signing of Shaun Marsh has bolstered our squad. We’re also really pleased with the depth on our list and that will be important given the schedule is more condensed this season.”

Stars head coach David Hussey said the team could now focus on finalising its list.

“Now that the fixture has been released, we can jump straight into planning,” he said.