Big Bash

 

Big Bash

The Big Bash (often abbreviated to BBL ) is an Australian professional franchise Twenty20 cricket league, which was established in 2011 by Cricket Australia. The Big Bash League replaced the previous competition, the KFC Twenty20 Big Bash, and features eight city-based franchises instead of the six state teams which had participated previously. The competition has been sponsored by fast food chicken outlet KFC since its inception. It is one of the two T20 cricket leagues, alongside the Indian Premier League, to feature amongst the top ten domestic sport leagues in average attendance. The winner of BBL|09 (2019/2020) was the Sydney Sixers who beat the Melbourne Stars by 19 runs in the final. The Sydney Sixers took the title from the Melbourne Renegades who beat the Melbourne Stars in the BBL|08 (2018/2019) final.

BBL matches are played in Australia during the southern hemisphere summer, in the months of December, January and February.

Out of the eight teams in the tournament, six have won the title at least once. The Perth Scorchers are the most successful team in the league's short history, winning the title three times including consecutively for two years and have reached the final of the tournament in five of the eight seasons. The other five teams which have won the title are the Adelaide Strikers, Sydney Sixers (twice), Melbourne Renegades, Brisbane Heat and Sydney Thunder. The current champions are the Sydney Sixers defeating the Melbourne Stars on 8 February 2020 at the Sydney Cricket Ground in a game that was reduced to 12 overs each due to rain.

Before 2014, the top two teams in the tournament used to qualify for the Champions League Twenty20 tournament, which was an annual international Twenty20 competition played between the top domestic teams from various nations; it became defunct after the 2014 tournament.

A design contest was held in 2011 to determine the design of the Big Bash League trophy. The competition was restricted to Australian designers, with the final design, chosen by the public from a field of three, revealed on 13 December 2011.

Expansion proposal

It had been proposed that the tournament would undergo expansion into more regional areas not supported by international cricket. The expansion was originally planned to be implemented in 2012. The proposed teams included: Newcastle, Canberra, Geelong, and Gold Coast. A New Zealand-based team was also mentioned as a possibility which would be based at Auckland or Christchurch, but this is unlikely to happen. The expansion proposal was suspended, mainly because the proposed cities lacked the proper cricket hosting facilities.

In 2015, former Black Caps captain and Melbourne Stars coach Stephen Fleming suggested the expansion of the tournament to include New Zealand teams and become a trans-Tasman competition. He said an expansion into New Zealand would be widely supported by locals. His views were also supported by Brisbane Heat coach and former Black Caps captain Daniel Vettori. Melbourne Renegades chief executive Stuart Coventry also stated that he wants Cricket Australia to grant each club a fifth home fixture next season. Coventry said the BBL was ready to expand from 8 to 10 games, and adding matches would further establish the franchises.

In 2016, Anthony Everard, head of the BBL, flagged the league's intentions to approach expansion through a soft launch. He stated the short to medium term goal was to schedule BBL games involving existing franchises in regional markets before potentially adding new teams after the 2017–18 season when the broadcast deal expired. He also indicated the regional markets of Canberra, Geelong and Gold Coast will likely host games during the soft launch period. On 27 January 2017, Everard announced an extra eight matches would be added to the 2017–18 season and implored each existing franchise to look at new markets when considering where the extra games would be played, although the lengthened season was not implemented until 2018–19.

In 2018, it was reported that the Gold Coast Suns were interested in securing a Big Bash League franchise if the competition was expanded.