Based on feedback from players, fans & broadcasters, CA decided to curtail BBL 2019-20 duration

Fans, broadcasters and even players found Australia’s domestic T20 tournament, Big Bash League (BBL) in 2018 was far too long. Based on their feedback, Cricket Australia (CA) has decided to reduce the length of the next edition scheduled in 2019-20. The CA has reportedly shrunk the tournament by more than 12 days. The ninth edition of the BBL will see 56 regular games played in 42 days instead of 54 as it was last summer. A few of those games will be played during the school holiday period.

A revamped final series this time

According to cricket.com.au, the six-week season of the BBL’s next edition will be played between December 17, 2019, and January 27, 2020. The regular games will be followed by a revamped finals series. The entire fixture and the finals series will be announced on Thursday. In 2018-19, Melbourne Renegades defeated Melbourne Stars in the final of the eight-side tournament.

It was also said that the next season will see the regular matches concluding over the Australia Day (January 26) weekend with all eight teams playing at least once. The tournament had a shorter regular season even a couple of seasons back but then it was stretched into a full home-and-away competition. The organisers’ decision to shrink the tournament has received a positive response from all those who felt that it was going far too long, Alistair Dobson, CA’s new BBL head, said.

“No one that we had in through this process has had any objection to the shorter season. It was overwhelming feedback primarily from fans, but players wanted to play more cricket in a shorter period and all our key stakeholders were on board with that,” he was quoted as saying by cricket.com.au.

He also said the new fixture wanted that a big number of regular-season games are played during the school holidays and hence more families can find it accessible. The fact that Australia will not be playing in any limited-overs series at home the next summer has helped CA to work on the BBL structure even more. In a break from the past, Australia will play a three-ODI series in India in January which will allow the BBL to steal the limelight at home then.