Big Bash League

The Big Bash League (known as the KFC Big Bash League for sponsorship reasons, often abbreviated to BBL or Big Bash) 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 10 (2020/2021) was the Sydney Sixers who beat the Perth Scorchers by 27 runs in the final. The Sydney Sixers successfully defended the title after winning it in the 2019/2020 season, after defeating the Melbourne Stars.

BBL matches are played in Australia during the summer; in December, January and February.

Out of the eight teams in the tournament, six have won the title at least once. The Perth Scorchers and the Sydney Sixers are the most successful teams in the league’s short history, both having won the title three times including consecutively for two years. The other four teams which have won the title are the Adelaide Strikers, Melbourne Renegades, Brisbane Heat and Sydney Thunder. The current champions are the Sydney Sixers defeating the Perth Scorchers on 6 February 2021 at the Sydney Cricket Ground by 27 runs.

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.

History

Trophy

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.

Women’s Big Bash League

Former women’s Test captain and Head of Brisbane’s Centre of Excellence, Belinda Clark, revealed on 19 January 2014 that planning for a women’s BBL was in its early stages but could become a reality very soon. She stated that the proposal was being considered due to the huge rise in television ratings during the 2013–14 season, and the rise in women’s cricket popularity.

On 19 February 2015, Cricket Australia announced that a Women’s Big Bash League (WBBL) would commence in the 2015–16 season, with teams aligned to the men’s competition. It was announced that the teams would share the names and colours of the existing men’s BBL teams, meaning that there would be two teams from Sydney and Melbourne and one team from Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide and Hobart.

The inaugural Women’s Big Bash League was won by the Sydney Thunder against the Sydney Sixers. The Sydney Thunder won by 3 wickets. However WBBL 02 and 03 were won by the Sydney Sixers.

Christmas Day match

In December 2015, Cricket Australia revealed that they are looking into the possibility of hosting a Christmas Day BBL match in the coming years, possibly after the next season. If the proposal is passed, it would be a first in the history of Australian sport since no professional matches are played in Australia on Christmas Day. “It is something we have just recently started discussing, the possibilities of that. We’re talking about playing a Christmas Eve match, we already play Boxing Day,” CA’s Executive GM (Operations) Mike McKenna said. This has not yet occurred, but in September 2018, it was reported that Cricket Australia had struck a deal with the Players Association to play BBL matches on Christmas Day.

Tournament format

Since the inception of the BBL in 2011, the tournament has followed the same format every year except the inaugural season. The first BBL season had 28 group stage matches, before expanding to 32 in the following season.

Since the 2018–19 season, each team plays all other teams twice during a season, for a total of 56 regular season matches before the finals series.

In previous seasons of the tournament, the group stage matches were divided into eight rounds, with four matches played in each round. Each team played six other teams once during a season, and one team twice. This allowed for both Sydney and Melbourne (which have two teams each) to play 2 derbies within a single season. Each team played eight group stage matches, four at home and four away, before the top four ranked teams progressed to the semi finals. In the 2017/18 Season, the format changed so that there would be 40 group stage matches with each team playing 10 matches before the semi finals. The season was held over a similar time-frame thus resulting in more doubleheaders (one game afternoon, one game night) and teams playing more regularly.

The final of the tournament is played at the home ground of the highest-ranked team. The only exception to this rule was 2014–15 season when the final was played at a neutral venue (Manuka Oval), due to the 2015 Cricket World Cup.

In the 2018–19 season, the league introduced a ‘bat flip’ (instead of a coin toss) to decide who would bat/bowl first.

The finals structure was changed in the 2019–20 season to look like this:

BBL|09 Finals Series (Home team listed first)

Thurs Jan 30: The Eliminator (Fourth v Fifth)

Fri Jan 31: The Qualifier (First v Second)

Sat Feb 1: The Knock-Out (Third v Winner of The Eliminator)

Thurs Feb 6: The Challenger (Loser of The Qualifier v Winner of The Knock-Out)

Sat Feb 8: The Final (Winner of The Qualifier v Winner of The Challenger)

In order to give BBL a boost Cricket Australia has decided to introduce three new rules—Power Surge, X-Factor Player and the Bash Boost—in 2020 edition 

Current teams

The competition features eight city-based franchises, instead of the six state-based teams which had previously competed in the KFC Twenty20 Big Bash. Each state’s capital city features one team, with Sydney and Melbourne featuring two. The team names and colours for all teams were officially announced on 6 April 2011. The Melbourne Derby and Sydney Derby matches are some of the most heavily attended matches during the league and are widely anticipated by the fans. The Scorchers and Sixers have also developed a rivalry between them over the years and their matches attract good crowds and TV ratings.

A single city-based franchise can have a maximum of 19 contracted players for a season, with the squad including a minimum of two rookie contracts and a maximum of six overseas players, although only three international players can play in each match from 2020–2021 edition. Each team can also have a maximum of two overseas replacement players, in case the original overseas players get injured or withdraw.

	Team	City	State	Home ground	Coach	Captain
	Adelaide Strikers	Adelaide	South Australia	Adelaide Oval	Jason Gillespie	Alex Carey
	Brisbane Heat	Brisbane	Queensland	Brisbane Cricket Ground	Darren Lehmann	Chris Lynn
	Hobart Hurricanes	Hobart	Tasmania	Blundstone Arena	Adam Griffith	Matthew Wade
	Melbourne Renegades	Melbourne	Victoria	Marvel Stadium	Michael Klinger	Aaron Finch
	Melbourne Stars	Melbourne	Victoria	Melbourne Cricket Ground	David Hussey	Glenn Maxwell
	Perth Scorchers	Perth	Western Australia	Perth Stadium (Optus)	Adam Voges	Ashton Turner
	Sydney Sixers	Sydney	New South Wales	Sydney Cricket Ground	Greg Shipperd	Moises Henriques
	Sydney Thunder	Sydney	New South Wales	Manuka Oval	Shane Bond	Callum Ferguson

Tournament season and results

The Perth Scorchers and the Sydney Sixers have won the title three times: the Scorchers in the 2013–14, 2014–15, and 2016–17 seasons and the Sixers in the 2011–12, 2019–20, and 2020–21 seasons.  Both of these teams have won the title in consecutive seasons. 

The Scorchers have reached the final of the tournament six times. Out of the eight teams in the tournament, six have won the title at least once. Only two other teams (the Hobart Hurricanes and Melbourne Stars) have reached the final at least twice The other four teams which have won the title once are the Brisbane Heat in the second season (2012–13), the Sydney Thunder in (2015–16),  the Adelaide Strikers in (2017–18),  and the Melbourne Renegades in (2018–19). 

The WACA Ground has hosted the final on four occasions, the most of any venue.

BBL season winner

Season	Final			Final host	Final venue
	Winner	Result	Runner-up
2011–12 Details	Sydney Sixers 3/158 (18.5 overs)	Sixers won by 7 wickets Scorecard	Perth Scorchers 5/156 (20 overs)	Perth Scorchers	WACA Ground
2012–13 Details	Brisbane Heat 5/167 (20 overs)	Heat won by 34 runs Scorecard	Perth Scorchers 9/133 (20 overs)	Perth Scorchers	WACA Ground
2013–14 Details	Perth Scorchers 4/191 (20 overs)	Scorchers won by 39 runs Scorecard	Hobart Hurricanes 7/152 (20 overs)	Perth Scorchers	WACA Ground
2014–15 Details	Perth Scorchers 6/148 (20 overs)	Scorchers won by 4 wickets Scorecard	Sydney Sixers 5/147 (20 overs)	Canberra/Perth Scorchers	Manuka Oval
2015–16 Details	Sydney Thunder 7/181 (19.3 overs)	Thunder won by 3 wickets Scorecard	Melbourne Stars 9/176 (20 overs)	Melbourne Stars	MCG
2016–17 Details	Perth Scorchers 1/144 (15.5 overs)	Scorchers won by 9 wickets Scorecard	Sydney Sixers 9/141 (20 overs)	Perth Scorchers	WACA Ground
2017–18 Details	Adelaide Strikers 2/202 (20 overs)	Strikers won by 25 runs Scorecard	Hobart Hurricanes 5/177 (20 overs)	Adelaide Strikers	Adelaide Oval
2018–19 Details	Melbourne Renegades 5/145 (20 overs)	Renegades won by 13 runs Scorecard	Melbourne Stars 7/132 (20 overs)	Melbourne Renegades	Docklands Stadium
2019–20 Details	Sydney Sixers 5/116 (12 overs)	Sixers won by 19 runs Scorecard	Melbourne Stars 6/97 (12 overs)	Sydney Sixers	SCG
2020–21 Details	Sydney Sixers 6/188 (20 overs)	Sixers won by 27 runs Scorecard	Perth Scorchers 9/161 (20 overs)	Sydney Sixers	SCG

Team	2011–12	2012–13	2013–14	2014–15	2015–16	2016–17	2017–18	2018–19	2019–20	2020–21
Adelaide Strikers	6th	5th	7th	SF (1st)	SF (1st)	6th	W (2nd)	7th	KO (3rd)	EF (5th)
Brisbane Heat	5th	W (4th)	5th	8th	6th	SF (2nd)	7th	5th	7th	CF (4th)
Hobart Hurricanes	SF (2nd)	6th	R (4th)	5th	7th	7th	R (4th)	SF (1st)	EF (4th)	6th
Melbourne Renegades	7th	SF (1st)	6th	6th	5th	5th	SF (3rd)	W (2nd)	8th	8th
Melbourne Stars	SF (4th)	SF (3rd)	SF (1st)	SF (3rd)	R (2nd)	SF (4th)	8th	R (4th)	R (1st)	7th
Perth Scorchers	R (1st)	R (2nd)	W (3rd)	W (2nd)	SF (3rd)	W (1st)	SF (1st)	8th	6th	R (2nd)
Sydney Sixers	W (3rd)	7th	SF (2nd)	R (4th)	8th	R (3rd)	5th	SF (3rd)	W (2nd)	W (1st)
Sydney Thunder	8th	8th	8th	7th	W (4th)	8th	6th	6th	CF (5th)	KO (3rd)

Notes:

• W = Winner;
• R = Runner-up;
• SF = Semifinalist;
• EF = Eliminated in “The Eliminator” Final (4th vs 5th) (from 2020);
• KO = Knocked-out in “The Knock-Out” Final (3rd vs winner of the Eliminator) (from 2020);
• CF = Eliminated in “The Challenger” Final (2nd vs winner of the Knock-Out) (from 2020);
• TBD = To be Decided;
• (1-4) = End of league games table position;

Sponsorship

Title Sponsor

• KFC
• Rebel (WBBL)

Associate Sponsor

• Weet-Bix
• Toyota
• Wrigley Extra
• Commonwealth Bank
• BKT Tires
• Woolworths
• Dream11

Apparel Sponsor

• Majestic Athletic (Team Apparel)
• ’47 (Caps/Hats)

Broadcast Partners

• Fox Cricket
• Seven Network
• Radio Australia (Outside Australia)
• Macquarie Sports Radio
• Crocmedia (1116 SEN)

Salary cap

The salary cap was initially $1 million, and increased to $1.05 million for the third season. In February 2015, the salary cap increased to $1.3 million for the fifth season, and to $1.6 million for the sixth season.

Prize money

Cricket Australia increased the prize money for the BBL to a total of $890,000 for the four finalists from 2015–16 season, after the Champions League Twenty20 tournament was discontinued with effect from 2015. The prize money will be split between the teams as follows:

• $20,000 – To the team finishing fifth in the season
• $80,000 – To each losing semi-finalist
• $260,000 – To the Runner up
• $450,000 – To the Champion of the season

However, the additional cash increase of $600,000 will go to successful clubs and not their players. Up to the 2014–15 BBL season, a total prize money of $290,000 was awarded.

Audience

Attendance

Average home crowds for the regular season are listed below. These figures do not include finals matches. The figures for the whole season average include the finals. Post-Christmas matches have historically been the highest attended period for the League. BBL has provided a platform to create interest in playing cricket among younger children, due to its big hitting, high scoring and entertaining nature of the game.

The 2014–15 season saw record domestic cricket crowds in the states of South Australia, New South Wales, Tasmania and the ACT, including a record attendance of 52,633 at the Adelaide Strikers’ home semi-final, which was then the biggest ever crowd at the redeveloped Adelaide Oval.

In the 2015–16 season, attendance figure records continued to be broken across all the venues. Perth Scorchers became the first ever BBL team to sell out all of its home matches in a season. On 2 January 2016, the BBL single match attendance record was surpassed, with a crowd of 80,883 watching the first of two Melbourne derbies between the Melbourne Stars and the Melbourne Renegades at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. The Big Bash League also entered the top 10 most attended sports leagues in the world with respect to average crowd per match in this season.

Team	Crowd average
	2011–12	2012–13	2013–14	2014–15	2015–16	2016–17	2017–18	2018–19	2019–20
Adelaide Strikers	21,986	13,319	23,703	36,023	42,437	41,275	33,951	28,095	25,139
Brisbane Heat	17,072	15,897	23,685	24,611	29,353	34,190	32,980	22,343	23,167
Hobart Hurricanes	10,517	12,107	9,552	13,776	16,640	17,570	13,536	11,197	8,298
Melbourne Renegades	13,324	13,184	21,929	22,324	29,010	30,033	28,315	19,881	15,528
Melbourne Stars	27,424	21,451	21,813	27,698	40,986	49,578	31,628	21,541	21,447
Perth Scorchers	14,905	11,539	17,380	18,825	20,273	20,567	21,511	30,133	26,586
Sydney Sixers	20,068	13,286	19,914	23,849	27,956	30,368	24,815	17,784	15,327
Sydney Thunder	18,423	10,278	14,866	17,938	19,333	20,688	15,432	12,461	10,888
Finals	15,222	17,568	15,286	27,920	42,182	25,642	43,330	22,854	12,691
Whole season	18,021	14,883	18,778	23,590	29,443	30,114	26,531	20,552	18,353

Television

Australian television

BBL games are currently broadcast in Australia on free-to-air television by the Seven Network and subscription television by Fox Cricket. The Seven Network broadcasts 45 of 61 Matches including the Finals Series. Fox Cricket televises all 61 Matches including 16 Matches exclusively in 4K.

The rights were previously held by Network 10, who in 2013 paid $100 million for BBL rights over five years, marking the channel’s first foray in elite cricket coverage.

Network 10’s BBL coverage became a regular feature of Australian summers and attracted an average audience of more than 943,000 people nationally in 2014–15 season, including a peak audience of 1.9 million viewers for the final between the Scorchers and Sixers.

The 2015–16 season attracted an average audience of 1.13 million for each match in Australia this season, an 18% increase on the previous season. A cumulative audience of 9.65 million watched the matches in Australia, out of which 39% were females. The opening Sydney Derby match of the season attracted a peak audience of 1.53 million. The last group match between Renegades and Strikers in Session 2 was watched by an average audience of 1.36 million, which peaked at 1.67 million. The BBL Final was watched by an average audience of 1.79 million, which peaked at 2.24 million viewers. This was the first time that the ratings for a BBL match crossed the 2 million mark.

Broadcast partners

Country/Countries	Television Network/s
Australia	Fox Cricket (2011–2013, 2018–present), Network Ten (2013–2018), Seven Network (2018–present)
New Zealand	Sky Sport
Pakistan	Ten Sports
South Africa	SuperSport
India	Sony ESPN
Sri Lanka	Sony SIX
United Kingdom	BT Sport
United States	Willow (2018–present), NBC Sports Gold (2018–present)
Canada	CBN & ATN Cricket Plus
South Africa	Supersport
Papua New Guinea	NBC Papua New Guinea
South-East Asia	Fox Sports Asia
Central Asia	SPN Sports India
Africa	Kwese Sports
West Indies	Sports Max, Flow Sports

Grounds

A total of seventeen grounds have been used to host BBL matches to date. Sydney Thunder moved out of ANZ Stadium after 2014–15 season and relocated to Sydney Showground Stadium for the next 10 years. From 2020, the tournament Final is played at the home ground of the team which wins ‘The Qualifier’, a finals match contested between the teams finishing 1st and 2nd in the League. The WACA Ground has hosted the final four times, more than any other venue. Manuka Oval hosted the final of 2014–15 BBL season as a neutral venue primarily because other major grounds were being prepared for the 2015 Cricket World Cup.

Optus Stadium replaced the WACA Ground as the home ground of Perth Scorchers commencing from the 2017–18 BBL semi-finals, where Perth’s home match against Hobart Hurricanes (and a doubleheader WBBL match featuring the Perth Scorchers and Sydney Thunder) became only the second public event at the new stadium.

In September 2017 the Adelaide Strikers agreed to play one home BBL and WBBL match at Traeger Park in Alice Springs over the course of the 2017–18 season. In 2018, they announced that one BBL and two WBBL matches would be held at Traeger Park for the 2018–19 and 2019–20 seasons. Since 2017–18, the Melbourne Renegades have played two matches per season at Kardinia Park in Geelong, Victoria and the Hobart Hurricanes play multiple games at UTAS Stadium in Launceston, Tasmania.

Name of the stadium	Capacity	City	Home team
Current Grounds
Adelaide Oval	53,583	Adelaide	Adelaide Strikers
Blundstone Arena	19,500	Hobart	Hobart Hurricanes
Marvel Stadium	53,359	Melbourne	Melbourne Renegades
Optus Stadium	60,000	Perth	Perth Scorchers
Brisbane Cricket Ground	42,000	Brisbane	Brisbane Heat
Melbourne Cricket Ground	100,024	Melbourne	Melbourne Stars
Sydney Showground Stadium	22,000	Sydney	Sydney Thunder
Sydney Cricket Ground	48,000	Sydney	Sydney Sixers
Secondary Grounds
UTAS Stadium	21,000	Launceston	Hobart Hurricanes
GMHBA Stadium	34,000	Geelong	Melbourne Renegades
Traeger Park	10,000	Alice Springs	Hobart Hurricanes
Manuka Oval	12,000	Canberra	Sydney Thunder
Metricon Stadium	25,000	Gold Coast	Brisbane Heat Melbourne Stars
Ted Summerton Reserve	7,500	Moe	Melbourne Stars
Coffs Harbour International Stadium	20,000	Coffs Harbour	Sydney Sixers
Former Grounds
ANZ Stadium	82,000	Sydney	Sydney Thunder (2011–2014)
WACA Ground	20,000	Perth	Perth Scorchers (2011–2018)

Records and statistics

Here is a list of Big Bash League records. All records are based on statistics at espncricinfo.com. Brisbane Heat captain Chris Lynn currently holds the record of scoring most runs in the league. The record of taking most wickets in the league belongs to Ben Laughlin, who currently plays for Brisbane Heat. He has represented Hobart Hurricanes and Adelaide Strikers in the past, and has played a total of 95 BBL matches since 2011.

Batting Records
Most runs	Chris Lynn	2,790
Highest average	Brad Hodge	42.78
Highest score	Marcus Stoinis	147* vs Sydney Sixers (12 January 2020)
Highest partnership	Marcus Stoinis & Hilton Cartwright	207 vs Sydney Sixers (12 January 2020)
Most sixes	Chris Lynn	172
Bowling Records
Most wickets	Ben Laughlin	111
Lowest average	Lasith Malinga	15.00
Best strike rate	Haris Rauf	12.5
Best economy rate	Lasith Malinga	5.40
Best bowling figures	Lasith Malinga	6/7 vs Perth Scorchers (12 December 2012)
Best bowling figures by a debutant	Daniel Sams	4/14 vs Sydney Thunder (19 December 2017)
Fielding
Most dismissals (wicket-keeper)	Alex Carey	51
Most catches (fielder)	Glenn Maxwell	59
Team Records
Highest total	Sydney Thunder	232–5 (20) vs Sydney Sixers (22 January 2021)
Lowest total	Melbourne Renegades	57 (12.4) vs Melbourne Stars (3 January 2015)