Canberra, NZ frontrunners for BBL expansion

Cricket Australia is seriously considering dropping a bombshell and expanding the Big Bash, but a major bun fight is already looming over the choice of a new ninth team.

Canberra has emerged as the clear early favourite, while New Zealand Cricket says it would be open to talks should CA powerbrokers decide in coming months that adding the BBL’s first expansion team is financially viable.

Discussions are at an embryonic stage, however, sources claim if the bold move to follow the AFL and NRL into expansion is given the green light, it is possible expressions of interest could be sought in coming months and a new team could enter the BBL as early as the Ashes year in two summers.

Canberra’s ACT government-supported bid to enter the competition has already triggered strong resistance from key states NSW and Victoria, while New Zealand’s prospects are instantly complicated by the fact it would only be interested in joining the BBL if given, not one, but two licenses.

Given it was only 12 months ago that CA reduced the number of Big Bash games and signed a new seven-year broadcast deal on that basis, the key to the expansion push is that teams would continue to only play 10 matches each and the season would still fit into the same neat seven-week window.

NSW and Victoria – already servicing two BBL franchises each – are concerned a Canberra team would further drain their playing depth, but influential ACT chairman Greg Boorer said the game needed to act in the best interests of the sport overall.

“I think people have got to go into this with an open mind,” Boorer said. “I think historically … people always seem to focus on the reallocation of the existing pie rather than growing the pie into the future. “If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got and perhaps a little bit of competition would actually be a good thing and would actually get everyone to lift their games a little bit and actually improve the competition … My perspective on it is that I’ve made some inquiries and I’ve pushed for it and Cricket Australia has agreed to actually just do some work.

“What does a value-accretive addition team look like? What does value accretive mean to Australian cricket?

“My understanding is Cricket Australia are doing some work and doing some modelling and working out what’s possible.”

New Zealand Cricket would have to move its Super Smash domestic T20 league from its current December-January window to November if it was to entertain a move to join the Big Bash League.

codesports.com.au