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The detail that could 'move the dial' on BBL privatisation
Nicholas Quinlan • November 24th, 2025 6:38 pm
The Australian Financial Review’s Zoe Saimos has given an update on the ongoing situation as to whether Cricket Australia will allow for private ownership/privatisation in the Big Bash League.
This comes after a report from the Boston Consulting Group earlier in the year, which provided a recommendation for Cricket Australia to explore the option of allowing private investment in the domestic T20 competition.
It would see the BBL follow in line with England’s The Hundred, which auctioned off stakes in their eight franchises back in February.
In that auction, sides sell either minority, majority, or entire stakes, with the English Cricket Board generating more than £500 million, and the eight franchises combined valued at £975 million ($1.976 billion AUD).
If Cricket Australia were to go through with this and earn a similar deal, this would provide a significant influx to the governing body, which reported a $11.3 million loss for the last financial year despite posting record revenue.
With discussions currently ongoing between Cricket Australia and the state associations that own the eight BBL teams about what they should do, it appears that Cricket Victoria (owners of the Melbourne Stars and Renegades) is the least in favour of privatisation compared to the other associations.
But there is one detail that could help improve the likelihood of their support.
“Now the biggest problem for them (Cricket Australia) at the moment has been Cricket Victoria," Saimos told SEN 1170’s Boys of Summer.
"Cricket Victoria has probably been the most conservative in terms of going to market.
“And that’s all around how much money (and) who are the owners? Those are the two sticky issues.
“From what I know, they are becoming much more open to the idea.
"For them, there is one thing that can really move the dial. And that is that Cricket Victoria and Cricket New South Wales both have two Big Bash League teams.
“So, it’s more, ‘Okay, if we are selling both or selling a majority stake in both, do we get to keep the cash for the second one? Because we’ve got two and everybody else has got one'.
“Now obviously, if you’re a state that only has one, you’re going to say no, that should go into the big pool of funds that Cricket Australia has tried to gather together.
“But if you’re Cricket New South Wales and Cricket Victoria, you’re saying, ‘Well, yeah, we’ll put a bit of that in from one team, but surely, we can keep some of the money for ourselves.
“That seems to be the thing that will probably get Cricket Victoria over the line. As far as I’m aware, that particular thing hasn’t necessarily been resolved, but it hasn’t been ruled out either.”
But at this stage, the esteemed journalist believes it is more likely that the league will allow for stakes in the teams to be sold.
“I would say in the next few weeks, we’re going to know one way or another whether we’re pushing forward,” she continued.
“My bet would be that we are, and by this time next year, we’ll have some idea of who some of the new owners are.”
The BBL season will get underway on December 15 with the Perth Scorchers taking on the Sydney 6ers at Optus Stadium.
SEN will have LIVE coverage of the entire 44-game tournament on its radio network and on the SEN app.
