Cricket Australia aims to increase funds to attract big international names in BBL

The recently concluded 2018-19 Big Bash League (BBL) ended with Melbourne Renegades defeating Melbourne Stars in an amazing match in the finals to lift their maiden title. The Aaron Finch-led side came back from behind and defended a below-par score.

There is no doubt that BBL is one of the most popular and widely followed T20 leagues in the world, possibly only behind the Indian Premier League (IPL). The BBL has carved out its own niche thanks to exciting matches, fans involvement and high quality of cricket.

Now that the BBL has reached a level, where it is becoming popular day by day, Cricket Australia has also started to think about increasing the funds to procure more international players as there was a demand for the same from the BBL clubs and the broadcasters.

As per ESPNCricinfo reports, Cricket Australia is thinking of creating a separate fund for overseas players. This marquee fund will be outside the general BBL salary cap of AUD 1.77 million and similar to that used by the A-League in concert with Fox Sports. The amount of remuneration offered to overseas players by T20 leagues like the Bangladesh Premier League and Pakistan Super League has opened up a gorge which the CA hopes to fill with this marquee fund.

Cricket Australia hopes that this fund will be sufficient enough to lure many international stars with contractual figures and will somewhat be competitive to the amount offered by other leagues in which the teams are privately owned and contracts have big numbers. However, there are still questions to be answered before this ambitious idea becomes a reality.

The challenges we see are in our two-team markets

Another area that needs to be discussed before the next year’s BBL is the running time of 60 days. This issue has been raised by the players and coaches of various BBL teams that the league goes on for too long when compared with the number of matches.

A big concerned area according to Kim McConnie, the head of the BBL is the viewer numbers. The final was watched by 40,816 spectators and a combined average broadcast audience of 1.14 million that the Sydney and Melbourne markets both needed more attention.

“The challenges we see are in our two-team markets. As we look at it, there are a couple of isolated areas wherein big major cities, we’re just competing against so much more, it’s a little bit harder for us to pick up that momentum. There’s a little bit more work to do in Sydney and Melbourne to build the fan base back up again,” McConnie said.

The last thing on the review will be changing the format of the finals from two semifinals and a final to the format that is used by other leagues in which the top two teams in the points table get two chances to make it into the finals.

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