The board of the Cricket Australia (CA) governing body has formally agreed to let its six member state associations sell off stakes in the eight teams that make up its Big Bash League (BBL) Twenty20 competition.
It has been announced today by Mike Baird and Todd Greenberg – CA's chair and chief executive, respectively – that the states are now formally permitted to sell stakes in the teams (or, indeed, the whole organization) to outside private investors.
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The sales process will begin overall with the inviting of bids from outside entities for the Melbourne Renegades BBL team.
A self-determination model for each state association to be able to privatize their BBL team or teams was agreed on in mid-June.
In a statement, Australian cricket's governing body said: "The Cricket Australia board has agreed to take a landmark step toward bringing private investment into the Big Bash Leagues, beginning with the launch of a sales process for the Melbourne Renegades. CA will invite bids from private owners for the Renegades with a view to them playing the 2027-28 season under new ownership."
Following the result of the Renegades sale process, CA will "consider taking other clubs to market under a self-determination model," it has said.
The board has claimed that its chosen model of self-determination for each state will "enhance funding for community, domestic and international pathways and elite cricket; protect the primacy of Test cricket; continue to develop and engage the best players in our national teams and the Big Bash Leagues and grow our brands, fan engagement and commercial strength."
All this has been unveiled, however, with CA and the Australian Cricketers' Association (ACA) still a considerable distance apart in terms of agreeing terms around a renegotiated pay deal – a Memorandum of Understanding – for players.
Paul Marsh, chief executive of the ACA, told the Cricinfo media outlet earlier this week that the positions of the two parties on a pay deal for players are still a long way apart.
Marsh has now commented publicly: "From the ACA's perspective, today's announcement doesn't change the work that's required to be done for privatisation of the Big Bash Leagues to proceed. A new MoU needs to be negotiated between ACA and CA, and currently we are a long way apart on a possible new deal."
Essentially, the current MoU states that the ACA can take 27.5% of all revenue that comes into Australian cricket overall, and they believe this should include 27.5% of any sum generated from the sale of BBL team stakes.
CA, on the other hand, believes the players' union should only receive 27.5% of interest earned from reinvested sales money.
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 and entirely necessary in order for the domestic Twenty20 game in Australia to keep pace with the rest of the cricketing world.
In mid-July, it was announced that the Renegades will play the opening game of the 2026-27 BBL in Chennai, India, marking the first time in league history that a fixture will be held overseas. The 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 more appealing to a global audience.
The BBL was established in its current format in 2011-12, with a women's edition (the WBBL) added in 2015-16.
In terms of this process in other countries, meanwhile, late March saw the New Zealand Cricket governing body unveil its vision for the future of T20 in that market, featuring a new competition – the NZ20 – that will launch late next year.
