Australia news – BBL’s ‘No. 1 priority’ to make domestic stars ‘feel valued’

The future of the draft is uncertain, with an announcement expected next month, and clubs could be allowed to return to direct signings, at least in the short term.

“We’ve got to work day and night to make sure we keep our best players playing in Australia,” Alistair Dobson, head of the Big Bash Leagues, told SEN. “Every year we have Test players coming in and out, and that’s been a part of the life of the BBL for 15 years now, but having our best, particularly our white-ball players, playing in the BBL is what’s made the competition great. It’s almost our number one priority, to focus on that group of players and ensure that they feel valued and are part of our competition and can keep being the backbone of our league. That’s right in front of mind.

“I think one of the key objectives for us is to be able to bring more money into the salary cap in the future so that, importantly, not only do the best overseas players want to come and play in the BBL, but our best local Australian players, and particularly the stars that really underpin our competition, get paid what they’re worth, not just compared to overseas players, but compared to the opportunities that are presenting around the world, which are growing rapidly, and increasingly it’s hard for us to keep pace with that in the current model.”

“Part of the work we’re doing with the ACA now is if we were to move into a privatised model and more capital or an injection was to come into the game, how do we best apportion that to different parts of the playing group,” Dobson said. “From my perspective, clearly putting as much of that into the BBL and WBBL salary caps is going to be important because that underpins the ability for us to put the best teams on the field.”

On the WBBL specifically, Dobson added: “From a quality perspective, the same truth exists for the WBBL that we need to be competitive globally. We need to keep investing in the WBBL. The players are rightly now incredibly well-rewarded around the world to play in the WPL in India and now the Hundred in the UK. So the same challenges on the women’s side exist as they do on the men’s.”

“I think both teams, and both teams from both clubs, men’s and women’s, are set up in good shape from a list perspective,” Dobson said. “We’ve got to do some work now to bring those fans back on that journey for the clubs with Cricket Victoria. I think once they start to see the season come to life and for what’s true for the BBL, which is fun, family entertainment, summer nights of the cricket, those things will hold true.”

Dobson added that he understood the scepticism around privatisation but was adamant that the game in Australia needed to respond to wider changes. “I think, globally, the game’s going through a pretty seismic change,” he said. “That hasn’t necessarily hit Australian shores yet, but it’s going to. The work that we’ve been doing for a long time now, the best part of a year, is to try and set ourselves up and chart a course through that evolution.

“I think, inevitably, that significant level of change comes with some twists and turns and bumps. We’ve got to continue to do the best job we can to take people on that journey because change is coming for the game and we want to control our destiny on that.”