Pat Cummins cannot help but laugh at the prospect of the Melbourne Stars merging with their rivals, the Renegades, before ever having a chance to win a Big Bash League title. The Test captain, however, is in favour of opening the BBL to outside investors, as Cricket Victoria plans.
On Tuesday, Cricket Victoria informed players and staff of plans to effectively merge the two existing Melbourne BBL franchises and sell off their second licence. The deal is far from complete, as any sale of a BBL team would require approval from Cricket Australia and the Australian Cricketers Association. Nevertheless, the proposed plan represents the most significant step yet towards BBL privatisation, a contentious issue that has intensified in recent weeks.
Earlier this off-season, objections from Cricket NSW and Queensland Cricket prompted Cricket Australia to pause plans to privatise the BBL as a whole. Instead, CA will consider a phased sale of stakes in BBL clubs, allowing some state associations to retain control of their teams if desired. With Cricket Victoria pushing enthusiastically for privatisation, Tuesday's news came as no surprise to Cummins.
"There's no secret that Victoria are pretty keen to sell at least one of their teams," Cummins said at an Amazon Prime media event. "It makes sense that they can hold on to one and the other team opens up for investment. I wasn't overly surprised."
The merged Cricket Victoria team would likely operate under a new name, possibly the Bushrangers, signalling the demise of the Stars and Renegades brands. Both teams have underachieved across 15 BBL summers. The Renegades' 2018/19 triumph is the only BBL trophy won by the two Melbourne teams, and the Renegades also won two summers ago for the state's sole Women's Big Bash League triumph.
"The merger means the Stars never win a trophy, which, that's quite funny," said born-and-bred Sydneysider Cummins.
Cricket NSW previously flagged concerns over rescinding control of the BBL to outside influences, with the impact on the national side a clear concern. As it stands, Australia's leading Test players are rarely available for significant BBL game time given their busy schedule over the summer. However, private owners could compel players to prioritise their franchise sides over national duties unless CA is able to intervene.
"I think you can sort it out. The world has changed, you need to update the contracting structure to keep some control of those issues," Cummins said. "Selfishly, I'm the Aussie captain, I want as many players available as possible for the Aussie set-up. There does need to be a few tweaks to make sure the priorities stay the same."
Cummins, who has played 80 Indian Premier League matches, is a fan of privatisation. "I've played in a few different franchise leagues and I've got nothing but good things to say about my different owners and teams I've been part of," he said. "The amount of resources they put back into developing players and promoting the league and promoting the team, it's been awesome. If it's done well, it opens up a lot of opportunities."
