Bresnan’s backing for Big Bash lookalike

TIM BRESNAN believes the ECB have got it right in trying to emulate Australia’s Big Bash.

The all-rounder has played twice at the BBL, following a stint with Hobart in 2014-15 by featuring for winners Perth this winter, when he played alongside Mitchell Johnson (below) and witnessed the positive effects of engaging the next generation of fans.

Ahead of tomorrow’s vote — which will see the ECB’s 41 members tick up proposals for an eight-team franchise competition from 2020 — Bresnan said: ‘Anything that puts an emphasis on targeting young audiences can’t be bad. At the Big Bash, everywhere you look there are families — mum, dad, two kids. There is more going on outside the grounds than in them. At two games this winter, SpongeBob SquarePants turned up. They’d signed a big deal with Nickelodeon to produce a big cricket show called Crash The Bash, just for kids. I watch Nick Jr every morning with my two.”

Bresnan, 32, also believes less can be more when it comes to Twenty20 tournaments. ‘Every game in the BBL is a big game, in front of a packed house. So every one felt like a derby. We need fewer games with more on each because that makes it exciting.’