The sting in Pat Cummins’s snub of the Thunder’s entreaty to join them for their run through the Big Bash League finals was soothed somewhat by an Instagram post that revealed a rural picnic setting complete with champagne, cheese, crisp bread, curious cows and his partner brandishing a diamond that sparkled like her smile.
Congratulations are in order.
Mitchell Starc similarly wanted some family time and when you are the bloke who turned down a couple of million dollars a year in the Indian Premier League to have a holiday with your wife, such an excuse holds more water than when it is used by most.
Still, if the deluge does not arrive as predicted this weekend David Warner, who has ignored invitations to join the Bash, will play club cricket when hypothetically he could have been playing in the final. He hasn’t had a club in the domestic competition for some time and apparently has no interest in joining one. That’s a right concern. He’s box office.
Not that all the big names of Australian cricket are washing their hair. Steve Smith, arguably the most marketable of them all, is turning out for the Sydney Sixers in the final at the same ground where he won the title for Sutherland’s club team while indisposed last summer.
Josh Hazlewood is also running around with the Sixers and bowled two class-above deliveries to end the innings of fellow national teammates Peter Handscomb and Nathan Coulter-Nile last Friday.
Not wanted for either the Tests of early summer or the cricket-interruptus that was the ODI dash to India, Glenn Maxwell has got to play out the whole of the BBL and been the big show that the event needs.
Counting the stars present and absent is a way of navigating why there is an outbreak of discontent as the Big Bash approaches its big moment.
Last year it was generally accepted that the tournament was too long and to give administrators their due it was duly condensed while keeping the same number of games. Crowds of 13,275 and 15,995 at the weekend’s finals suggested that interest has waned again and the condensing had little effect.
The Australian revealed on Wednesday that one of the legends of the sports television industry in Australia, David Barham, has been commissioned by Cricket Australia to provide an undercover survey and assessment of the BBL to see what can be done to restore its gloss.
It’s extraordinary to be concerned about a domestic competition that attracts one million people to grounds and very good numbers to the broadcasts, but the trend lines in recent years have been tracking south.
The timing of this downturn is awkward. Cricket had used the expanding BBL as the sweetener in the billion dollar broadcast deal signed two years back. Just after it had expanded the league from 34 to 59 games — a move that appears to have spread the butter thinner and turned away international stars who didn’t fancy coming down under for so long.
The Australian’s readers are in furious agreement that length/scheduling, frequency and lack of star power are the issues.
Jackie noted that there were “four games in two weeks at Adelaide Oval, not many families can afford either the time or money”.
Peter (not me) got to the point (not my style) “too many games with not enough names”.
Daniel railed against the summer’s bizarre fixture and suggested the BBL was a support act in need of a main event: “The cricket season ended on 6 January when the Test finished. How could there be no one day competition scheduled in January and February. Australia Day without an international match! Big Bash complements real cricket, it is not a substitute for it. CA has killed the golden goose.’’
James had an answer: “overexposure of a product, leading to viewer fatigue — you don’t need an expensive report to tell you that”.
People repeatedly said that scheduling the finals after school holidays was a mistake.
So what to do?
The big stars have avoided the tournament because it is too long and doesn’t pay enough. If you won’t reduce the number of games and length then find some of the funds that rolled in when the billion dollar broadcast deal was inked to attract them. Just so you know: One IPL franchise has the same salary cap as the entire BBL.
Cricket Australia is right to prioritise international cricket ahead of the BBL, but needs to find a way to get the David Warners of this world — one of the biggest draw cards in the format — to spend what little down time they have in service of a franchise.
The BBL could get away with domestic and undiscovered international stars when it was off broadway but when you get the big bucks you have got to deliver.
And if you don’t want to move the finals then you better find a way to make sure the event is so compelling that children can convince their parents of the need to attend. And, just quietly, free face painting and a DJ is not going to do the trick.
The league isn’t in crisis but if the issues at hand are neglected it could be.
The BBL is the best thing Cricket Australia has done for many, many years.
Over to you, Dave. Good luck with all that.
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