Would New Zealand benefit from joining the Big Bash?

Jaxin Daniels • October 1st, 2025 12:14 pm

The Stags celebrate their Super Smash Grand Final win in 2025 | Photo: Marty Melville / photosport

With the cricket season about to get into full swing, and whispers of a New Zealand team potentially entering Australia’s Big Bash League, Scotty and Izzy have looked into what this could mean for New Zealand Cricket.

“I’m a big believer in looking at what we have in our own backyard and thinking how we maximise that,” Scotty said.

“Yes, a lot of our big players are playing in franchise leagues around the world, but a bunch of them play in this league (Super Smash).

“The league is of a good standard, and if you ask anyone who plays Super Smash cricket here in New Zealand, they’ll say the same thing.

“We have a great spread of talent around this country.

“What you could do to attract other talent is to augment what we already have on our doorstep, I think that would be the way I want to go.”

Scotty believes that having a NZ side in Australia's top-tier T20 competition has the potential to repeat what happened to the NPC and how it’s plummeted since the inception of Super Rugby.

“All options should be on the table, but we do this all the time.

“It’s been done with provincial rugby, and we froth the NPC on the station, so we should think a lot of people do, but look how far that has fallen down and the lack of care from the national body around its own provincial game.”

A suggestion from Izzy goes along the lines of introducing a ‘Super League’ between the two countries.

“Let’s call it the Monster Bash,” Izzy suggested.

“We have two leagues that play each other throughout their competitions and then we bring a super league together and have a playoff series between Australia and New Zealand.”

“Then you have a cross-pollination of competitions throughout the end of it and then we get to see both sides playing here and abroad.”

However, Scotty isn’t too convinced Australia are wanting to do this for the benefit of both countries.

“If Australia have started talking to New Zealand about joining the Big Bash, that’s in their interests, because they’ve never shown one iota of care about what’s in New Zealand’s interest.

“If they wanted New Zealand in the first place, when this (Big Bash) was all the rage, they would’ve come.”

Former Blackcap, and fellow Sport Nation host, Kyle Mills is in the same boat as Scotty.

"I'm not a fan at all," Millsy said.

"You look at other sports where teams have gone into Australian leagues, we had a really good Bartercard Cup competition that disappeared once the Warriors joined the NRL, same with the Breakers, our national basketball competition used to be fantastic.

"Why can't we just focus on our competition? Why can't we make our domestic competition great?

"If we put a team into the Big Bash, that's propping up their competition. What about us? When are we going to invest into New Zealand's competition?

"Just invest in us."

Listen to the full deep dive from Scotty and Izzy here: