Big Bash League - General Discussion

[pillowprocter]

BBL starts day after, and there aren't any messages here. Peak BBL

I think after WC your expectations are too high. Other than global events stuff, only IPL and top 6 teams involving internationals get any signif discussion most of the time

 

[Viper.]

I guess it would be active if someone like Ddrap was active. Idk why people don't follow the BBL, it's a meme of a league but also quite interesting to watch

 

[pillowprocter]

Idk why people don't follow the BBL

Many people follow it. Few people post on planet cricket about it

 

[WubbaLubbaDubDub]

Many people follow it. Few people post on planet cricket about it

I doubt that, I feel even the Australian's dont follow it that much.

 

[Bevab]

I doubt that, I feel even the Australian's dont follow it that much.

Mate what is it with you and thinking Aussies basically never watch cricket?

 

[Bevab]

I guess it would be active if someone like Ddrap was active. Idk why people don't follow the BBL, it's a meme of a league but also quite interesting to watch

I used to follow it a lot and catch most games a few seasons ago back when the likes of Jofra were turning out for Hurricanes and Rashid was an unplayable cheat code for the Strikers.

Then they made the season longer, started losing out on overseas talent to other leagues and my spare time significantly reduced. Occasionally try to catch a few highlights due to the meme potential but there’s just too much cricket and not enough time to follow them all nowadays.

 

[wasteyouryouth]

I used to follow it a lot and catch most games a few seasons ago back when the likes of Jofra were turning out for Hurricanes and Rashid was an unplayable cheat code for the Strikers.

Then they made the season longer, started losing out on overseas talent to other leagues and my spare time significantly reduced. Occasionally try to catch a few highlights due to the meme potential but there’s just too much cricket and not enough time to follow them all nowadays.

I think the long seasons and pandemic really hurt it. Last season was pretty good though.

Don't know if I'm looking forward to it, but certainly more interesting than ILT20.

Feels a bit more like the Blast these days, with local players being the real stars and cult heroes.

 

[WubbaLubbaDubDub]

I used to follow it a lot and catch most games a few seasons ago back when the likes of Jofra were turning out for Hurricanes and Rashid was an unplayable cheat code for the Strikers.

Then they made the season longer, started losing out on overseas talent to other leagues and my spare time significantly reduced. Occasionally try to catch a few highlights due to the meme potential but there’s just too much cricket and not enough time to follow them all nowadays.

Mate what is it with you and thinking Aussies basically never watch cricket?

This exact reason you gave. While it had 33% uptick in viewership across for the finals, it still is as boring as it always was. The increase in the number of games diluted the competition's appeal. Additionally, the unavailability of Australia's top players due to international commitments and the challenge of attracting international stars weakened the league's appeal. Also there are way too many T20 leagues that contributed to the downfall as well.

Also the Aussies are not serious about limited overs cricket despite them winning trophies. As evident they only care about Ashes and Test cricket which I am completely fine. It is like England before 2019.

 

[Bevab]

This exact reason you gave. While it had 33% uptick in viewership across for the finals, it still is as boring as it always was. The increase in the number of games diluted the competition's appeal. Additionally, the unavailability of Australia's top players due to international commitments and the challenge of attracting international stars weakened the league's appeal. Also there are way too many T20 leagues that contributed to the downfall as well.

Also the Aussies are not serious about limited overs cricket despite them winning trophies. As evident they only care about Ashes and Test cricket which I am completely fine. It is like England before 2019.

I believe they’ve walked back on the increased number of games but I wouldn’t be sure of it. Given the importance of the Australian summer to their cricket calendar I don’t see them sacrificing it for the sake of the BBL anytime soon although they’ve been more cognisant of the fact that better and bigger names playing directly equals more interest and have taken steps to ensure some games at least are played by them. There’s also the subtle effect of their cricket depth not being as vast as it once was due to the other sports being more enticing for the best young kids out there which was partly covered over the last decade by a few of the older stars who retired internationally riding off into the sunset in the BBL.

You’d be wrong on them not caring about white ball cricket though. The BBL lines up perfectly with the summer holidays (which is why the decision to lengthen it was so bad since it extended beyond said holidays) which means good attendances due to it being relatively cheap and decently marketed locally alongside being a cultural event. They don’t care about it to the extent the average Indian fan does for their IPL team but it has more following than most other domestic tournaments out there.

Internationally they don’t give a toss about T20Is and meaningless ODIs (which is like most of them these days) but they do hold interest in the big series’ and ODI World Cups. Not celebrating their most recent win to the extent of a hypothetical Indian crowd reaction to their side winning doesn’t mean they don’t care about it given that this WC wasn’t followed as much in other countries from what I can see on social media. They also don’t care about tests against teams that they regularly pummel such as West Indies or Sri Lanka, the attendances for such games are absolutely dire and no better than some of the tests in other countries where people claim test cricket has been dying for ages.

If I had to sum it up from my experiences of biased observation, I’d say…

Ashes
Tests against India/South Africa/New Zealand
ODI World Cups
BBL

Significant ODIs




Meaningless ODIs





T20 World Cup

…that should sum it up.

 

[CerealKiller]

I used to enjoy BBL a lot on weekend winter mornings 6 or 7 years ago. Since then, the stadiums have become emptier, the tournament longer and harder to follow, and the quality of cricket quite worse. Haven’t followed in a long while

 

[Viper.]

The overseas quality has really dropped since the last 2 seasons though not kidding. From players like Malan, Ingram, Archer, Lamichhane, Mujeeb, Nabi to basically being just England T20 mercenaries and young T20 stars from England. Last 2 seasons we've had Brook (before his int. debut), Mahmood, Garton, Cockbain, Cox, Lammonby, Adam Hose, Laurie Evans, and now Eskinazi, Jamie Overton and David Payne as well.

They're all pretty good but we have seen better

 

[pillowprocter]

Yes, because of ILT20 and SA20

 

[Bevab]

Yes, because of ILT20 and SA20

The disrespect to the BPL.

 

[Umair7]

I used to enjoy BBL a lot on weekend winter mornings 6 or 7 years ago. Since then, the stadiums have become emptier, the tournament longer and harder to follow, and the quality of cricket quite worse. Haven’t followed in a long while

CA greed ruined BBL! The 8 games per team was perfect!

Post automatically merged: Dec 7, 2023

I watched the first game & wasn't disappointed (Stars getting mauled made my day)

 

[pillowprocter]

I watched the first game & wasn't disappointed (Stars getting mauled made my day)

Who do you go for?