BBL|11 - Derp's Megathread + General Discussions

[ddrap14]

Firstly, a thank you to the players, umpires, broadcasters, venues, staff and families who had to adapt to complete the season. And to the fans for their support. I'll also do the same - there's no way we'd be here today without all of their efforts.

Laurie Evans is MOTM. Despite being handed the certificate pre presentation, he's still shocked. Says he is glad to contribute to a team that's a bit homesick.
Henriques acknowledges it's a tough night but says he's proud of the fill in players ("a few more than 18 this year") and says they have had a great season. To be fair, they have... He also says the Scorchers just were the better team all year. Also true.
Medal presentation time. Is it bad I didn't see Inglis' moustache until now?
Jhye Richardson not the best with the kid there - drops his cap over his eyes. Oops. About the first thing he's done wrong since coming back from Test duty.
Now Ashton Turner to the mic. Says he thinks any captain would talk about adversity and obstacles, but says he's fortunate about how good his team has performed and how many sacrifices they've made. Congratulates Sydney, the outgoing champions, on their achievements. Thanks the sponsors (full winning captain mode here)
Trophy time. The orange confetti had a little bit of a hitch, and didn't go off until a few seconds into the celebrations, but it did and there's the usual colourful shot of the winners.

I'm going to call that a night as the Scorchers players take pictures with the trophy and their families. I may make a couple little summary posts (maybe some stuff on BBL history too) but for now, goodnight and goodbye until December.

 

[ddrap14]

NOPE I'M MAKING ONE MORE POST BECAUSE COLIN MUNRO JUST USED THE WORDS BIRTH CONTROL IN AN ACTUAL INTERVIEW LMFAO

 

[Aislabie]

So, that's another BBL done. Brief jeopardy there at 25 for four, but one got the impression that anything over 125 would be too much for Nick Bertus and co.

I don't mean to overreact (hell, I love the BBL) but this season really was the kind of farce that laid bare everything that's crap about this league.

The teams still don't have a shred of distinct identity - it's not their fault particularly, as it was CA who decided that Melbourne, Melbourne, Sydney and Sydney should be four different teams, but it comes to something when we're eleven seasons in and still relying on picking our favourote colour to support.

East vs West Sydney rivalry is a thing; why are the two Sydney teams not explicitly referencing this? The two Melbourne teams are about 3km apart, but if the Renegades were explicitly the Docklands team then that could help to create something of a blue collar-white collar rivalry.

Then there are the grounds being used. The MCG is great and all, but it's also a huge let-down at a quarter full. Consistently the best ground in the BBL is Bellerive Oval - capacity of around 15 to 20,000 people who've a definite local team to support, and intimate enough that it feels as if the fans are almost on top of the players. It's the same reason that the non-Test English grounds are able to put on the best Blast nights.

Other grounds like that certainly do exist - North Sydney Oval, Coffs Harbour, Carrara (though it's a bit of a bowl); it's just a case of using them.

But since it started the BBL has been very static, changing only the things that weren't broken (we've now had two seasons of Bash Boost points) but the post-Covid era would certainly be a good time to change that. So, a non-exhaustove list of things I'd change:

The Teams: I would personally expand to 12 teams, with new teams in Canberra, Darwin, Geelong and Gold Coast. The secondary Melbourne and Sydney teams would also get a small rebrand:

• Adelaide Strikers (blue)
• Brisbane Heat (maroon)
• Canberra Comets (ice blue)
• Darwin Waves (navy)
• Docklands Renegades (red)
• East Sydney Sixers (pink)
• Geelong Wildcats (stripy)
• Gold Coast Rays (yellow-gold)
• Hobart Hurricanes (purple)
• Melbourne Stars (green)
• Perth Scorchers (orange)
• West Sydney Thunder (lime)

Changes to the status quo are in bold; I tried to make the new team names as blandly generic as the originals, but who knows how that worked out.

Creating more new teams when there's already a talent drought seems really silly, but it would be accompanied by more changes to keep standards up:

• Change to the substitition rules: All teams submit their 13-man matchday squad, and are free to make two changes to their eleven at any point in the match. This includes swapping out a batter who is out for another batter, and a bowler who has bowled their four overs for another bowler. Thus, more teams will be able to play their best cricket more often.
• National team players get an automatic BBL deal: None of this nonsense where Steve Smith can't play because the Sixers didn't want to waste a roster spot - all national team players should be availablefor their frsnchise if they're free. Thus, the common sense approach of centrally contracted players not counting towards their BBL team's roster cap, and being available for selection if not with Australia.
• Designated Players: One Australian, one international player per team that don't count towards the salary cap. This should reduce the number of Harry Brook situations where the international signing is a very small name indeed.
• More Ben Dunk: This is his world and we're just living in it.
• Less Harry Brook: For obvious, purely cricketing reasons.
• Annual draft for last 5 roster spots: Though this would leave most squads staying pretty stable, having an annual draft for the last five roster spots should help the likes of Henry Thornton get in and get game time.

I'd also be messing with the schedule - 11 rounds of round robin fixtures would mean five at home, five away, and one "festival" game per team. The six festival games would be held in places that don't otherwise see BBL games - Alice Springs, Coffs Harbour, Darwin, Launceston, Newcastle and Woolongong spring to mind.

Then after those 66 games, we'd head to the playoffs:

• Elimination final - 3rd v 4th
• Qualifying final - 1st v 2nd
• Semi final - EF winner v QF loser
• Grand final series (3 matches)

The best-of-three finals are a staple of Australian white ball cricket and have been forgotten lately. Honestly, y'all can even keep in the weird 5th place final if you really want.

Of course very few of these changes could actually happen before we see the back of covid - that already stretched the resources a bit too far this season - but if the league wants to stay valued, this would be dead helpful.

Also maybe a new name generally? There's the Australian Football League, the National Rugby League, A-League, Super Rugby, and then there's the Big Bash. One of these is a silly name. I honestly bepieve it would be taken more seriously by fans as "The Australian Cricket League" or similar.

Wow that was a ramble

 

[CerealKiller]

So, that's another BBL done. Brief jeopardy there at 25 for four, but one got the impression that anything over 125 would be too much for Nick Bertus and co.

I don't mean to overreact (hell, I love the BBL) but this season really was the kind of farce that laid bare everything that's crap about this league.

The teams still don't have a shred of distinct identity - it's not their fault particularly, as it was CA who decided that Melbourne, Melbourne, Sydney and Sydney should be four different teams, but it comes to something when we're eleven seasons in and still relying on picking our favourote colour to support.

East vs West Sydney rivalry is a thing; why are the two Sydney teams not explicitly referencing this? The two Melbourne teams are about 3km apart, but if the Renegades were explicitly the Docklands team then that could help to create something of a blue collar-white collar rivalry.

Then there are the grounds being used. The MCG is great and all, but it's also a huge let-down at a quarter full. Consistently the best ground in the BBL is Bellerive Oval - capacity of around 15 to 20,000 people who've a definite local team to support, and intimate enough that it feels as if the fans are almost on top of the players. It's the same reason that the non-Test English grounds are able to put on the best Blast nights.

Other grounds like that certainly do exist - North Sydney Oval, Coffs Harbour, Carrara (though it's a bit of a bowl); it's just a case of using them.

But since it started the BBL has been very static, changing only the things that weren't broken (we've now had two seasons of Bash Boost points) but the post-Covid era would certainly be a good time to change that. So, a non-exhaustove list of things I'd change:

The Teams: I would personally expand to 12 teams, with new teams in Canberra, Darwin, Geelong and Gold Coast. The secondary Melbourne and Sydney teams would also get a small rebrand:

• Adelaide Strikers (blue)
• Brisbane Heat (maroon)
• Canberra Comets (ice blue)
• Darwin Waves (navy)
• Docklands Renegades (red)
• East Sydney Sixers (pink)
• Geelong Wildcats (stripy)
• Gold Coast Rays (yellow-gold)
• Hobart Hurricanes (purple)
• Melbourne Stars (green)
• Perth Scorchers (orange)
• West Sydney Thunder (lime)

Changes to the status quo are in bold; I tried to make the new team names as blandly generic as the originals, but who knows how that worked out.

Creating more new teams when there's already a talent drought seems really silly, but it would be accompanied by more changes to keep standards up:

• Change to the substitition rules: All teams submit their 13-man matchday squad, and are free to make two changes to their eleven at any point in the match. This includes swapping out a batter who is out for another batter, and a bowler who has bowled their four overs for another bowler. Thus, more teams will be able to play their best cricket more often.
• National team players get an automatic BBL deal: None of this nonsense where Steve Smith can't play because the Sixers didn't want to waste a roster spot - all national team players should be availablefor their frsnchise if they're free. Thus, the common sense approach of centrally contracted players not counting towards their BBL team's roster cap, and being available for selection if not with Australia.
• Designated Players: One Australian, one international player per team that don't count towards the salary cap. This should reduce the number of Harry Brook situations where the international signing is a very small name indeed.
• More Ben Dunk: This is his world and we're just living in it.
• Less Harry Brook: For obvious, purely cricketing reasons.
• Annual draft for last 5 roster spots: Though this would leave most squads staying pretty stable, having an annual draft for the last five roster spots should help the likes of Henry Thornton get in and get game time.

I'd also be messing with the schedule - 11 rounds of round robin fixtures would mean five at home, five away, and one "festival" game per team. The six festival games would be held in places that don't otherwise see BBL games - Alice Springs, Coffs Harbour, Darwin, Launceston, Newcastle and Woolongong spring to mind.

Then after those 66 games, we'd head to the playoffs:

• Elimination final - 3rd v 4th
• Qualifying final - 1st v 2nd
• Semi final - EF winner v QF loser
• Grand final series (3 matches)

The best-of-three finals are a staple of Australian white ball cricket and have been forgotten lately. Honestly, y'all can even keep in the weird 5th place final if you really want.

Of course very few of these changes could actually happen before we see the back of covid - that already stretched the resources a bit too far this season - but if the league wants to stay valued, this would be dead helpful.

Also maybe a new name generally? There's the Australian Football League, the National Rugby League, A-League, Super Rugby, and then there's the Big Bash. One of these is a silly name. I honestly bepieve it would be taken more seriously by fans as "The Australian Cricket League" or similar.

Wow that was a ramble

Good ideas, unless the longer schedule interferes with the PSL

 

[ddrap14]

@Aislabie very insightful as usual, and in fact I have suggested on Instagram that expanding the tournament would be a very viable way to fix the game crunch that everyone's feeling right now. I wanted to make a couple comments on some things though.

National team players get an automatic BBL deal: None of this nonsense where Steve Smith can't play because the Sixers didn't want to waste a roster spot - all national team players should be availablefor their frsnchise if they're free. Thus, the common sense approach of centrally contracted players not counting towards their BBL team's roster cap, and being available for selection if not with Australia.

Firstly, this is already on the pipeline - CA said they were investigating it as soon as the Smith debacle happened, which to be fair, good on them.

Darwin Waves (navy)

Less positive time. There's a reason all cricket in Darwin is played in winter, and it's that it's way too hot. A third NSW team (Coffs? Newcastle?) would be more practical I reckon.

Change to the substitition rules: All teams submit their 13-man matchday squad, and are free to make two changes to their eleven at any point in the match. This includes swapping out a batter who is out for another batter, and a bowler who has bowled their four overs for another bowler. Thus, more teams will be able to play their best cricket more often.

Damien Fleming hasn't shut up about this, so you do have some power here

Designated Players: One Australian, one international player per team that don't count towards the salary cap. This should reduce the number of Harry Brook situations where the international signing is a very small name indeed.

One issue with this - what's been keeping the internationals away, if we listen to Peter Siddle who I suspect may be better qualified than someone like me, is that the tournament is too long and, in the last couple of seasons, too... bubbly. This would be a good idea - would allow teams to pay Rashid and Munro what they're worth - but I suspect it wouldn't fix the big issue on its own.

More Ben Dunk: This is his world and we're just living in it.

Dunk's something of a flat track bully (he averages like 10 at the MCG, which is why the Stars tore up his contract), but signing for Hobart or Brisbane or even the Renegades with how good their pitch is now would make sense.

Annual draft for last 5 roster spots: Though this would leave most squads staying pretty stable, having an annual draft for the last five roster spots should help the likes of Henry Thornton get in and get game time.

Expanding the tournament to 12 teams probably already fixes this problem, which as a Brisbane Heat fan I can pinpoint exactly: we gave full contracts to two 20 year old quicks with stress fractures in order to prevent them being poached. Rookie contracts would probably be a better idea should the tournament stay at 8 teams, but with expansion it's a good idea

I honestly bepieve it would be taken more seriously by fans as "The Australian Cricket League" or similar.

May want to change it to something that doesn't sound like the bit of my knee that's close to disintegrating...
(being serious, it's fairly heavily marketed by KFC as such, so I sense they'd veto it)

 

[Aislabie]

Firstly, this is already on the pipeline - CA said they were investigating it as soon as the Smith debacle happened, which to be fair, good on them.

That's good - it absolutely needs to be fixed asap.

Less positive time. There's a reason all cricket in Darwin is played in winter, and it's that it's way too hot. A third NSW team (Coffs? Newcastle?) would be more practical I reckon.

That is true, but annoying. Saying that, not having a home ground to play at didn't hurt Perth this year

Damien Fleming hasn't shut up about this, so you do have some power here

The X-Factor rule is such a half-baked idea; it's one of those where it would be better to implement the rule properly or not at all. A lot of people are on the side of not at all, but I've been beating the drum for substitutions in cricket for a little while; it's just that I have a very small drum.

One issue with this - what's been keeping the internationals away, if we listen to Peter Siddle who I suspect may be better qualified than someone like me, is that the tournament is too long and, in the last couple of seasons, too... bubbly. This would be a good idea - would allow teams to pay Rashid and Munro what they're worth - but I suspect it wouldn't fix the big issue on its own.

Yeah, that's definitely something of an issue; the players aren't paid enough to make it worth taking six-odd weeks out of their schedule when there are more lucrative pop-up tournaments around. And that's definitely not something that's going to go away, but if a dozen teams have a dozen top star players then that would go some way to making the tournament more of an attraction.

One other thing that has been very visible recently in Twenty20 cricket though is that if you have a good scouting team, you don't have to necessarily pick the same group of international players across all the leagues. There are plenty of players like Qais Ahmed, Nazmul Islam, Laurie Evans, Tom Bruce, Hammad Azam, Janneman Malan, Maheesh Theekshana, Odean Smith and Ryan Burl who don't necessarily play all the leagues and internationals, but would benefit a team. But with the game as it currently is, Harry Brook exists.

Dunk's something of a flat track bully (he averages like 10 at the MCG, which is why the Stars tore up his contract), but signing for Hobart or Brisbane or even the Renegades with how good their pitch is now would make sense.

Ben Dunk is a horribly misused player; he also didn't want to spend Christmas and New Year in a bubble away from his family this year which I can't blame him for. It further reinforces what I was saying about most of this being pointless until covid goes away; when it does though, Dunk would be best used as a middle-order hitter of spin bowling. He is the best player in the world against left-arm orthodox spin, but very average against high pace. He's also a competent spinner and bog-average gloveman. So naturally, team after team picks him as an opener and keeping option.

Expanding the tournament to 12 teams probably already fixes this problem, which as a Brisbane Heat fan I can pinpoint exactly: we gave full contracts to two 20 year old quicks with stress fractures in order to prevent them being poached. Rookie contracts would probably be a better idea should the tournament stay at 8 teams, but with expansion it's a good idea

Sully and Willans right? That's a pretty bold step to hold out that much on two players with four professional games between them. Could work out though in the coming years - this year was a write-off anyway given the amount of the Heat squad who ended up having covid replacements.

May want to change it to something that doesn't sound like the bit of my knee that's close to disintegrating...
(being serious, it's fairly heavily marketed by KFC as such, so I sense they'd veto it)

It probably would be with the league in its current form - it's a bit chicken-and-egg over which came first out of the tournament not being taken seriously, and it having a silly name; never forget, Andrew Johns was sacrificed for this

 

[ddrap14]

To all who read this thread: I'd like some advice.

I'm working on a way to determine the BBL's greatest game of all time after an argument between me and my father about whether the game on Wednesday or the one with Travis Head's ton was better.

I have four criteria:
* Competitiveness - how close the game was
* Pressure - how important the game was
* Performance - how well both teams performed relative to their peak and the pitch conditions
* Individuals - a spectacular individual performance (i.e. Maxwell) can make even the most one sided of games a treat to watch

But I'm struggling for a fifth. If anyone has any ideas, lmk, otherwise I might just double competitiveness.

Sully and Willans right?

Yep. Heat management are not very clever - we've handed out the head coaching job to four variations of Darren Lehmann based on the fact he won BBL02 (from fourth on the table). Not that Boof's a bad coach but surely we could sign someone who didn't learn under him after nine failures?

So naturally, team after team picks him as an opener and keeping option.

He had two brilliant years - one with the Hurricanes where he was player of the tournament I believe, and then his first year with the Strikers - doing this. Not much since. Telling that his two best knocks in Stars uniform were at Moe and Marvel - two smaller grounds. But he's the kind of player who I think would love the Surge

 

[ddrap14]

There are plenty of players like Qais Ahmed, Nazmul Islam, Laurie Evans, Tom Bruce, Hammad Azam, Janneman Malan, Maheesh Theekshana, Odean Smith and Ryan Burl who don't necessarily play all the leagues and internationals, but would benefit a team. But with the game as it currently is, Harry Brook exists.

Add Ian Cockbain to that list, too! The upgrade of him over 2022 Jake Weatherald was a key reason why Adelaide made it so deep

 

[ddrap14]

Less Harry Brook: For obvious, purely cricketing reasons.

How much difference can 12 months make?

 

[Aislabie]

How much difference can 12 months make?

Oh for sure. I can't remember the last time I saw so much improvement in a player's game from one year to the next