Why Melbourne and Sydney Have Each Been Assigned Two T20 Teams?

Melbourne and Sydney will each host two teams in next summer’s new Big Bash League, and the Ryobi Cup will be reduced in size to accommodate the overhauled Twenty20 rivalries. Cricket Australia’s panel concluded on Tuesday that Etihad Stadium in Melbourne’s Docklands and Homebush Stadium in Sydney would enter the six major Test grounds in hosting Twenty20 teams, rejecting Geelong’s bid. Despite the fact that the advent of the Big Bash League will hurt limited-overs competition, the board has so far kept its hands off from the Sheffield Shield. The first-class tournament includes each team playing each other twice, ultimately resulting in a five-day final, and cutting any rounds or the clincher from the Shield would have been a rare move after Australia’s Ashes collapse.

However, if the Twenty20 competition continues to expand over and above eight teams after next summer, something must give. Cricket Australia’s chief executive officer, James Sutherland, stated that the full Shield schedule was secure for the time being, and that there were other possibilities if more calendar time was required to participate in all three competitions. 

For the time being, the Ryobi Cup has been reduced from ten rounds to eight rounds plus a final. This opens up opportunities for the eight-team Big Bash League, which Cricket Australia could have utilized to expand the sport in Geelong, Victoria’s major regional city. However, due to a lack of floodlights at Geelong’s Skilled Stadium, as well as a willingness to explore into Melbourne’s western suburbs, that bid was scuttled.

The Kogarah Oval and Sydney Showgrounds in New South Wales were overshadowed as the board chose teams at the SCG and the ANZ Stadium at Homebush. The identities as well as colours of the eight city-based teams will be revealed in the following weeks, while private backers will be decided to seek for two new sides, with the existing state cricket associations each taking the reins of just one.

The other major step will be the dispersion of players among the teams, and Cricket Australia now chooses to believe that free agency is more likely than a national draught. Teams will be eager to retain their organically grown star players, but there is unlikely to be an IPL-style system in place in which a bunch of marquee talents are instantaneously tied to their hometown. Additionally, spectators who anticipate seeing Ricky Ponting and Shane Watson in the Big Bash League will be disheartened. There are currently no plans to establish a window free of international cricket during which the tournament could be performed, and Australia are expected to play Test cricket during much of the Twenty20 competition’s run, in December and January, next summer.

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