By @AzDoh12
This past summer of cricket certainly had its ups and downs.
The national side was brought to its knees for the first time ever on home soil by a rampant Indian team. Led by the ruthless Virat Kohli, powered by the immovable Cheteshwar Pujara and possessing the surgical precision of their fast bowling battery of Jasprit Bumrah, Ishant Sharma and Mohammed Shami, the Indian side stormed to a comprehensive 2-1 victory which left the Australian public demanding answers and Cricket Australia’s officials picking up the pieces.
Enter Sri Lanka, facing a revamped Australian team featuring a recalled Joe Burns and two debutants in Kurtis Patterson, who forced his way into the side with two imperious unbeaten hundreds, and Jhye Richardson, a young tearaway quick taking full advantage of the spotlight he stole in the ODI series against India. Sri Lanka had to brave the challenge of a pink ball Test in Brisbane and then turn around to the easiest pitch to score runs in Canberra.
Sri Lanka were never in the contest and Australia romped to a 2-nil series win and for now the holes in the boat look like they have been patched as we inch closer to Smith and Warner’s inevitable return to the Baggy Green.
On the domestic front the Big Bash was entering its eighth and biggest (pardon the pun) rendition yet, a mammoth 59 matches to be played over 60 days – a grand achievement for the league that has practically been printing money for Australian Cricket. But, as the league has gone on, obvious signs of fatigue have taken shape. Crowd attendance is down by nearly 4500 people per game on average from last year when the competition was only 43 games. Rumblings across media, the public and some player opinion have leaned towards the idea that the season is too long.
The Big Bash games themselves have struggled. The league has been hampered by a lack of close contests and a drop in batting standard, where the league run rate of just 7.54 this season is the lowest in the tournament’s eight year history.
BBL Head Kim McConnie argues that it’s hard to say the season is too long when you compare it to the NRL or AFL seasons. I think that is a misguided view when you consider the football codes have their games at the end of the week and downtime during the week. The BBL is practically every night which may be the reason the general consensus is that we are getting too much of it. Absence makes the heart grow fonder so to speak.
Another much publicised shortcoming from the Big Bash is the conflicting schedules with the Sheffield Shield. The Big Bash forces the first class competition into hiatus from early December to the end of February. Right when budding Test players should be trying to force themselves into the national side, their best avenue to do so takes time off for the T20 competition. There is no doubting the financial necessity that the Big Bash represents, however the same is true that the advent of T20 cricket has had a widespread negative impact on Australia’s ability to consistently produce Test cricketers.
A potential re-structuring of the summer could be an opportunity for Cricket Australia to have its cake and eat it too.
An extension of the Shield season to play through Test series will allow for more of an uninterrupted run for first class players to press their claims for a Test birth and allow the selectors to make informed decisions on players actively playing red ball cricket.
Obviously there is an incentive for the Big Bash to play over the holiday period as it presents the biggest opportunity for crowds to attend games, so shifting the Big Bash entirely to accommodate the Shield season is not feasible.
However, the middle ground could be this:
The JLT One Day Cup could start on September 14th and run through to October 12th, similar to how they have run the season in years gone by. The Shield season could then commence on the 17th of October and run through until December 20th. This would allow extra Shield rounds before the hiatus and the season would be played alongside the national side’s Test campaign, right up to the Boxing Day Test. Boxing Day is usually the fourth Test played in the summer. With the extended look at Sheffield Shield players, the selectors would be able to make far more informed decisions in the make up of the Test team. By that time any changes required for the Test side for the remainder of the summer should be well and truly figured out.
Now for the Big Bash. A later start to the season will help alleviate growing concerns about consumer fatigue. The competition could commence on Christmas Day with a double header. A Melbourne and Sydney derby for example, and then followed up with a double header on Boxing Day at Optus Stadium or Adelaide Oval.
American sports have been tapping into scheduling games on Christmas Day to great success. While it’s understandably a different market here, I think waking up Christmas morning to all of Santa’s presents before making the trek to meet up with family from far and wide for a Christmas lunch and or dinner all while having Australia’s best and brightest take part in an exciting game of cricket could be a Christmas tradition the country would get behind.
The competition could then run all through January, with the semi finals being played on the 1st and 2nd of February, and the final played on the following weekend, the 8th of February.
This schedule would allow the competition to tap into all the major end of year events like Christmas, Boxing Day along with New Years and the January school holidays.
A reduced schedule should keep all parties interested and stop rumblings about the league being too long and ensure we have the best product possible.
Moving forward, to help ensure the survival of both Test and Big Bash formats, it’s certainly a fair compromise. It allows a longer run for Shield cricket at a more relevant time and ensures the best possible result for the Test side.
The Big Bash has to move, but it also allows them to stay in a financially beneficial period of the year to maximise profits for Cricket Australia, all while potentially tapping into a market not yet utilized by being the first sport to be broadcast on Christmas Day.
One thing for sure, things do need to be looked at. The Test side isn’t the juggernaut it once was and a disjointed first class competition certainly isn’t helping things. The Big Bash has been the golden goose for Australian cricket, but care needs to be taken not to run it into the ground. Australia is not used to having their sport on every night for an extended period, and the rules we apply to our football codes don’t necessarily go hand in hand with the needs of the Big Bash. It’s an exciting time for cricket in this country and I hope the people in charge don’t miss a fantastic opportunity to help cricket across all formats.
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