The Cricket Australia (CA) governing body has agreed with its six member states – in principle – on a privatization model for the Big Bash League (BBL) domestic competition.
The plan that has been agreed is a self-determination model, after a meeting today at CA's Melbourne headquarters.
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This will allow each state to sell each stake in their BBL team or teams according to their own timeline – currently, all of the eight sides are part-run by the state associations.
Up to this point, none of New South Wales, Queensland, or South Australia had agreed on a CA proposal around privatization.
It follows on from Cricket Victoria unveiling plans earlier this month – reportedly, without consulting all the necessary parties – to merge the two Melbourne sides, the Stars and the Renegades.
The CA statement said: "The chairs provided their in-principle support of a self-determination model for private investment to be introduced into the game to be taken back to their individual boards for further discussion.
"The in-principle agreement, once conditions are met, would create the potential for Cricket Victoria to be the first state to go to market. This process would allow market testing of club valuation."
Mike Baird, chair of Cricket Australia, added: "The states have agreed to go back to their boards to discuss these proposals and address any questions that might arise from their members on four key topics involving governance of the BBL and CA, player support, and state distributions. We're confident this will lead to the best possible outcome for everyone."
Several obstacles do remain, however, most notably securing agreement from the Australian Cricketers' Association (ACA).
As things stand, that union has said publicly that it will reject the proposals.
CA and its chief executive, Todd Greenberg, believe that privatizing the BBL is necessary to bring capital into the competition, thus allowing the eight teams to attract the best players from around the globe.
Currently, the BBL is played at a time when multiple other T20 franchise leagues also take place – and competitions in the UAE and South Africa currently offer players, in most cases, bigger salaries per game than they can command in Australia.
The CA hierarchy feels that privatization is inevitable for the domestic Twenty20 game in Australia to keep pace with the rest of the cricketing world.
The BBL was established in its current format in 2011-12, with a women's edition (the WBBL) added in 2015-16.
Late March saw the New Zealand Cricket governing body unveil its vision for the future of T20 domestically, featuring a new competition, the NZ20.
