BBL in Chennai — franchise cricket takes a new direction

Sometimes, when you refuse to go to the mountain, they will bring the mountain to you. Australia’s Big Bash League (BBL), the second-most successful T20 franchise tournament after the Indian Premier League (IPL) will see its inaugural match of the season being played in Chennai in December. This is a business decision rather than a sporting one, and yet it might be the start of something. Perhaps franchise cricket worldwide looking for a foothold in the Indian market.

India don’t let their players participate in franchise tournaments abroad — to retain the IPL’s exclusivity as well as to protect players from burnout. R. Ashwin, who was to have played for Sydney Thunder last year post-retirement, had to pull out owing to an injury.

Playing part of a domestic league in another country is not uncommon. Sydney and London have hosted America’s Major League Baseball. The NFL’s London and Germany games were successful. The second IPL season was played in South Africa. Fans abroad fill stadiums, merchandise sales rise, and the leagues strengthen their global profile. It can be a marketing dream.

Yet, imagine a CSK match being played in Melbourne. How will the fans, the ‘whistle podus’ take it? When the Spanish football federation decided to play a LaLiga match (Villarreal vs. Barcelona) in the US last year, opposition grew from fans of the teams as well as the Spanish Football Supporters’ Association and the idea was dropped. The fans expressed their “absolute, total and firm opposition” to the plan. The counter-argument was that it was one match of the season’s 380, and the gains far outweighed the drawbacks. Fans don’t always have a say in sport, but they could.

Playing abroad does distort the home advantage, and clearly prioritises commercial interests over those of the supporters. There is the travel burden too. Yet, when you consider that commercial interest is the bedrock of franchise cricket, it all seems natural, even inevitable.

It is also further confirmation that the natural habitat of sport is not the local stadium, but television (or wherever you watch your sport live). Cricket’s version of the philosophical question is: Has a match taken place when it is not on television? Stadiums accommodate a few thousand, while television viewership is in the millions. Venues are becoming increasingly irrelevant; TV cameras have ensured that.

Awareness-spreading move

The BBL’s India-ward glance is more than an awareness-spreading move. In recent months, Cricket Australia (CA) has been contemplating selling stakes in its six teams to foreign investors, much like The Hundred in England did and T20 franchises in countries from South Africa to the West Indies have done. The cricket board had posted a loss of AUD 11.3 million in 2024-25. Opposition from New South Wales and Queensland scuppered that move initially, but the CA is probably hoping to make an offer they cannot refuse.

India’s interest in the sport — in terms of fans, finance, venues, television interest — is of such a magnitude that it effectively runs world cricket. The interest shown by the BBL is hardly unique. Already IPL owners also own some twenty other T20 franchises around the world besides four in The Hundred.

The CA’s original plan was to have more games in India, although it is difficult to see much enthusiasm from the Board of Control for Cricket in India for this. Taking the argument to its extreme, if the IPL and the BBL come together (albeit at different times of the year), both stand to lose. In 2023-24, the viewership in India for the BBL was 55 million, not a huge number, but the channel which broadcasts both might have a greater say in this than either cricket board! But we are getting ahead of ourselves here, valid though it is, if we see this match as a foot in the door.

In any case, the details are yet to be worked out by the two cricket boards. Will guest players from India be allowed to play in the Chennai match to garner local interest? Those familiar with the conditions, perhaps (although franchise regulars have enough experience there)? What is at stake for the BCCI? Is it merely a PR exercise or will the pound of flesh be claimed later? And when will Ahmedabad come into the picture, as it always seems to?