Big Bash League’s TV Success Makes Room For Addition Of One More Team: Cameron French

Dec 21, 2018 at 4:21 PM

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Big Bash League’s TV Success Makes Room For Addition Of One More Team: Cameron French

After the major success in Big Bash League ratings this season following the massive television audiences which are making things pretty easier for the Cricket ACT chief executive Cameron French to consider one more side in the BBL from the Australian capital Canberra.

To attract the much-needed sponsors Canberra would require $6 million for the franchise of BBL to become the part of shorter-format in cricket next summer.

French is confident to see Canberra becoming financially viable after attracting the sponsorships while leaving an overall impact of the increasingly popular competition.

“The great benefit of the Big Bash is the national reach it has and the scale of viewership. It’s still rating, over a million people are watching each night on free-to-air [TV], every game,” French said.

On the other side, the Cricket Australia supremo James Sutherland stated it’s a “mere formality” for the Big Bash expansion.

“So I think when you have that level of viewership on a national scale there are some great opportunities for businesses that want to showcase themselves into Canberra,” French added.

French also believed that the beautiful Manuka Oval will lure crowds before attracting the players to be a part of the new team as the plans are heading for expansion in BBL.

“I think any elite content’s great at Manuka. Clearly, a competition game would be a fantastic spectacle, but I know the Thunder had a really successful warm-up game at Albury where they had 10,000 people go,” he remarked.

CA is expected to consider several options in the 2018-19 season as the shorter-format would be seeing the number of teams joining the BBL family.

“Our focus is making sure there’s as much elite content at Manuka as possible and if there was a warm-up game that would be great, but if there was a round game that would be fantastic,” he added.

There are many players from Canberra participating in the ongoing BBL and WBBL, the list includes Jason Behrendorff (Perth Scorchers) Kriss Britt (Melbourne Renegades), Jono Dean (Adelaide Strikers) and Alex Ross (Brisbane Heat).

The Manuka turf has been considered good for the limited-overs cricket and French has urged the players would love to perform and get recruited for the national side.

“Obviously we’ve got the Test in a couple of years’ time where we’ll be able to determine whether it’s a great Test wicket – which we think it will be – but if you’re an aspiring player and you’re looking to get the best out of yourself in the short format of the game I think Manuka’s a really good option,” French revealed.

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