Big Bash is hot stuff – and the ECB would be wise to learn the lessons
Down Under, specialist wrist-spinners play a part and the action is on terrestrial television
Welcome to the Big Bash at the Etihad Stadium in downtown Melbourne. This is what T20 franchise cricket is all about. This is what the England and Wales Cricket Board will introduce in England in 2020, while the counties’ 20-over competition chugs along in the shade.
Actually, the cricket on display is no better, save in one respect, than what counties already offer on a Friday evening in Chelmsford or a Saturday afternoon at Taunton – and some of the batting is worse. Brisbane Heat bat first and score 132 for eight on a slow drop-in pitch and a large outfield.
Brendon Mccullum opens against two non-turning offspinners and decides to slog-sweep in the second over without any pad behind the line of a ball pitching outside leg stump.
Diehards of Australian domestic cricket might just have heard of James Peirson, Sam Heazlett, Marnus Labuschagne and Alex Ross: they are the other four batsmen in Brisbane Heat’s top five and they take up most of the innings, scoring no more than a run a ball.
For Melbourne Renegades, Dwayne Bravo is a big name and still a class act, while their other interesting bowler is Brad Hogg, who is 46 and fields like someone who turns 47 in February. But his left-arm wrist-spin is still hard to read and – this is where the BBL scores over county cricket and even the Indian Premier League – he is one of three specialist wrist-spinners on show.
Thereafter the only time the result is in doubt is when Pakistan’s fine new wrist-spinner, Shadab Khan, takes two quick wickets with the new ball for the Heat. Cameron White and Tom Cooper, old sweats, then knock off the runs for Renegades with seven wickets and eight balls to spare.
The difference lies in the packaging.
On a typical Melbourne day the weather had been hot, but by evening it had clouded over and was starting to spit, so the roof was on the stadium. It was warm inside; everyone wore sleeveless shirts, or blouses, or summer dresses, because the crowd was a very different demographic from a county or England game. Men still predominated, but young men, while women and children
Everything that moves – or does not – is branded, in the highest traditions of American sport
appeared to make up a quarter of the crowd.
Each player on the fielding side not only walked out holding a child by the hand but led him or her to his place in the field, before the kids scurried back to their seats just before the start and placed buckets on their heads. Everything that moves, or does not move, is branded, in the highest traditions of American sport – and one of the chief BBL sponsors sells fast food for the family by the bucket.
As the stadium was roofed, the music between overs, like a blast of Led Zeppelin, created more of an atmosphere.
This is the only Big Bash venue with a roof, designed for other sports in the old docklands area of the city. The stadium’s capacity is 55,000, but it was little more than one-third full, perhaps because of Christmas or because Renegades have been one of the least successful franchises, whereas the average BBL crowd is 30,000.
Between innings about a dozen people, each enclosed in a large plastic bubble, had a race while the fast-food outlets offered masses to eat and drink. A hamburger with chips and a bottle of fizz cost A$20, about £12, which was relatively expensive, but at least it had more taste than the bland fare served in most Australian restaurants with pretentious terminologies.
More relevantly, the cost of the cheapest entrance ticket was only A$22, an unimpeded view guaranteed.
Flamethrowers celebrated the eight sixes that were hit. And getting away afterwards was easy. In Australia, they have something called cheap and efficient public transport. Or you could park underneath the stadium for A$30.
Cricket Australia employs a separate security firm for the BBL, to look for “pitchsiders” – guys in the stadium with burner phones who report to the illegal Asian betting market – and eject them. I tried to look shifty on my mobile but nobody seemed interested.
The best thing about the Big Bash League is that it is on terrestrial television, for two reasons. One is that children in Australia know what cricket looks like, whereas in Britain only half have access to coverage on satellite TV. The other reason is that only five to six seconds pass between Mccullum being bowled in Melbourne and his dismissal appearing on screen in south Asia.
In a cricket match broadcast on satellite, the delay is between 11 and 12 seconds – much more time for a punter to lay his bet on an outcome which, with the aid of a pitchsider, is certain. Most of the franchise games in England in 2020 will be on satellite, but a handful on terrestrial.