Chennai in India will host the opening game of Australian Twenty20 domestic cricket's annual Big Bash League (BBL) later this year – marking the first time in BBL history that a game from the property will be held overseas.
The Melbourne Renegades will play the Perth Scorchers – 2025-26 BBL champions – at the MA Chidambaram Stadium on December 12, in what is the latest effort to make that eight-team competition (which Cricket Australia is currently attempting to market to overseas investors, particularly from India) more appealing to a global audience.
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If Cricket Australia (CA) and the Australian state cricket associations do end up agreeing on an investment model through which private money can come into BBL teams, the Renegades (who could end up being combined with the Melbourne Stars BBL outfit next season) and the Scorchers are likely to be sent to market first.
CA is currently attempting to bring a hybrid privatization model into play for next season's BBL and women's WBBL
The game – funded in part by the Centre of Australia-India Relations – was confirmed by the Prime Ministers of both countries at an event in Melbourne today.
Chennai was endorsed by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) as the most viable destination for the opening-night BBL fixture.
Alistair Dobson, general manager for Big Bash Leagues at CA, explained: "We're hugely excited by the opportunity, and we expect the match will be the most-watched game in Australian domestic league history for any sport.
"Every league or competition has their own unique strengths. We think the BBL has its own unique flavour that we want to bring, and hopefully people seeing it up close in their own backyard only strengthens that interest in the competition."
The game – which the BBL and CA are attempting to sell out, at the 38,000-capacity venue – will begin at 2:40pm Indian time, 5:10pm in Perth, and 8:10pm in Melbourne.
CA has claimed that the 2025-26 BBL secured higher Indian broadcast viewership than the five 'Ashes' tests against England that also took place during the last Australian summer.
It has been reported that all eight BBL men's teams were interested in taking part in this historic fixture, with the Renegades selected as the 'home team' due to not having an allocated venue in Australia for their home games in 2026-27, as yet (due to their impending merger with their cross-city rivals).
The Scorchers, meanwhile, are the most successful BBL team, having won six titles since the competition began in 2011-12.
With one or two exceptions, domestic T20 leagues have not attempted to host games outside their own country or region unless circumstances have forced their hand.
In terms of privatizing the teams, CA and its chief executive, Todd Greenberg, believe that this approach is necessary to bring capital into the competition, which will thus allow 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 Indian Premier League (IPL) is by far and away the most lucrative and prestigious of the various franchise T20 competitions running across the globe – one option which this match could bring forward is the prospect of an IPL game taking place in Australia, through a reciprocal agreement.
