It has been a chaotic week in Australian cricket with regards the push to introduce private investment into the BBL.There are a lot of unknowns as to how this will play out. Nothing has officially progressed as yet and no formal moves in the process can be made until after the six state executives and chairs meet with Cricket Australia (CA) in Melbourne next week with a decision on whether they proceed to the next phase of the privatisation plan likely to come on June 15. Here is a look at what is known and what is not known, and what could happen next.
Will there be eight teams in the BBL next season?
Yes. That is guaranteed. There was never any intention on CA's part to make changes to the competition structure in 2026-27, and private investment, if introduced, was not due to be part of the competition until 2027-28. There will be an eight-team BBL competition next season with each team playing ten home and away matches plus the finals, and two of those eight teams will be based in Melbourne.
So Melbourne Stars and Melbourne Renegades will play next season?
It's complicated. This is the eye of this week's storm. Cricket Victoria (CV) announced on Tuesday that it has already made administrative decisions to merge operations of the two teams under one brand, which will be run by CV, and play under a different nickname and colours. Their intention is to sell the second team, currently Renegades, to a private investor before the 2026-27 season, the investor could then re-name and re-brand the team, as has been the case with several Hundred franchises that were sold last year.
Following backlash on Wednesday, CA chief executive Todd Greenberg said he was "aware of Cricket Victoria's intentions" but that "there's still plenty of work to be done and nothing has been decided or approved as yet."
On the balance of probabilities, given what CV has done this week, it is hard to see how there is a team named Stars in the competition next season. However, nothing is confirmed yet. There is a chance there will be a Renegades team, but what it will look like is again an unknown.
How will that work?
Good question. It seems hard to believe that those things can happen within five months before the WBBL season starts and without the hybrid privatisation model even being approved yet, let alone testing the market with potential buyers and then actually running a formal process to purchase the license. But CV chief executive Nick Cummins is adamant all of this can be done in a couple of months and has already made the necessary administrative moves within the organisation to plan for it. There is also a contingency plan for Renegades if a prospective buyer cannot take over the team in time, with a caretaker administration already being formed to run the team as Renegades in its current form.
Why does Cricket Victoria want to do this?
Victoria had always intended to sell one of its two BBL teams entirely once it decided to vote for privatisation in order to run the other one more efficiently, with a 49% investor, like Western Australia and Tasmania intend to do with their lone teams Perth Scorchers and Hobart Hurricanes respectively. Victoria has long had trouble spreading its resources adequately across the two teams. Victoria was also hit harder by Covid than most other states, which has both impacted its current financial position differently and shaped its views on what's necessary to future-proof cricket in the state.
The reasoning for merging the Stars and Renegades brands under a different name has come from polling a series of member focus groups earlier in the year. Cummins explained that Renegades fans said they would not support Stars if their team was renamed and sold, and neutral Victorians who don't support either team would support one wearing state colours. Rather than alienate one fan base, they have elected to try and unite two.
The reason for announcing it now, two weeks ahead of the privatisation vote, was because of concerns over losing staff and sponsors due to the uncertainty of the short-term future. Cummins felt time pressure after the initial privatisation proposal was knocked back in April.
What's been the reaction from the other states?
Degrees of fury. Especially from New South Wales, Queensland and South Australia. Those three states demanded an emergency phone hook-up with CA on Thursday to vent their frustration at being blindsided by Victoria on this announcement and question whether CA had been complicit in it being announced ahead of the state meetings and the vote on whether to move to the next phase. Western Australia and Tasmania also sat in on the call, which featured CEOs and chairs from all five states plus Greenberg and CA chair Mike Baird. Victoria was not invited on the call.
Before the call, Cummins had sent an email to his state counterparts and attempted to speak to them individually to explain his actions.
Greenberg released a statement after that phone hook-up, saying, "The timing of the news about Cricket Victoria's intentions in the event of private investment was not ideal. But we understand their challenges."
Cricket NSW also remains frustrated that its proposal to self-fund the BBL without private investment has not been given a proper audience at CA. It is understood that it may well be discussed at the state executives' meeting next week. At the core of the frustration is a diametrically opposed view on CA's future financial projections. CA, and the states voting for privatisation, believe that CA's balance sheet will be bleak by 2031 without an injection of private money. NSW believes that is wildly pessimistic and believes the game's finances can be managed and grown comfortably without resorting to selling BBL teams to outside investors.
How did the players react?
With equal anger and some anxiety around the future.
The Australian Cricketers' Association (ACA) chief executive Paul Marsh issued the strongest statement of any on Wednesday, saying, "Cricket Victoria's announcement about a merger between the Stars and Renegades with the introduction of a new, privately owned club has created confusion, uncertainty and anxiety amongst players."
He was firm in reiterating that, "Under the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between Cricket Australia (CA), the States and the ACA, it is clear that agreement must be reached with the ACA for any Big Bash clubs to be privatised. Whilst a potential agreement between CA and the ACA is being discussed, it is not imminent and as such, any talk of privatising any teams for the coming season is premature."
Players from the Melbourne clubs reached out to media, including ESPNcricinfo, to find out more about what was going on. The playing lists of each team won't be immediately effected by the changes, although none of the squads are yet complete. There remains genuine frustration from players more broadly about the state of the BBL and the pay structure for its best players compared to other leagues overseas. Uncertainty remains over the coaching positions.
CA has been firm in stating that it will not renegotiate the MOU until a privatisation model is agreed upon by the states.
What does it mean for the fans?
For fans of the two Melbourne clubs, they have a right to feel disenfranchised. Particularly fans who were born this century and have known nothing but the BBL in its current form and have grown up supporting either Stars or Renegades passionately over 15 years. How they will react if Victoria's vision for the two teams is fulfilled this year remains to be seen.
There appears to be a general malaise more broadly among Australia cricket fans about how poorly the privatisation push has been explained and handled publicly by both CA and the states.
What is the next step?
The crucial decision comes on June 15 when the state chairs meet to vote on the hybrid privatisation proposal, which is set to allow each state to make its own decision whether to go ahead with pursuing private investment. That vote will follow four days of meetings between state executives and CA in the previous week, where the various details and current frustrations will be thrashed out in person.
It is understood that only four states would need to vote yes to move ahead to the next phase, although there is a desire to ensure that any dissenting states were not vehemently opposed to the model of self-determination. If it is passed, the states that do wish to pursue private investment immediately, which currently are Victoria, WA and Tasmania, will undertake a testing of the market jointly with CA and their consultant, the Raine Group.
The process will be the same as that of the Hundred franchise sales, with potential buyers to be sounded out and valuations of each club offered before moving to the sales process further down the track. The timelines for that remain unclear despite Victoria's insistence that it can happen within a matter of months.