Boom boom Bash is Plotting to have a game on Christmas Day!

Will Macpherson looks at the early stages of this year’s BBL and discovers that the competition is looking at a significant expansion.

- Will Macpherson

On the field and in the stands, it is almost as if the Big Bash League never went away. The stands are still full, Chris Lynn is still a genius, there are kids every where, Brad Hogg has changed colours but continues to defy his age, records are tumbling and people are talking about Andre Russell.

For 46 weeks of the year the competition lies dormant, but that’s not to say nothing is happening. A full wing of Cricket Australia is BBL-specific staff, headed up by the tournament’s boss, Anthony Everard.

He and his team spend the off-season – if you can call it that – re-grouping, plotting, travelling the Australian sporting scene and beyond picking up tips on how the tournament can grow. They know the only thing they can’t control are events on the field, so little else is left to chance.

As a result, the BBL’s sixth edition, and its sister the WBBL (in its second season) have picked up right where last year’s competitions left off. The crowds have been bigger (game-on-game compared to last year, with the competition’s biggest week, around the two big nights on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day still to come), more people than ever are watching on TV and talking about it on social media and, yes, the gimmicks are brasher, and naffer, than ever before.

For evidence, see Andre Russell’s black bat, which was allowed, then banned for leaving marks on the white ball, then modified and thus allowed again, all before he had played two games. Nothing gets people talking like a good ban, eh?