The two Melbourne teams from Australian domestic T20 cricket's Big Bash League (BBL) are set to merge into one entity for the coming season.
The Melbourne Stars and the Melbourne Renegades will be combined into one team, while a second side is then set to be created and sold to a new private investor - as soon as the Cricket Australia (CA) governing body can bring privatization into the competition.
The Renegades will play under a caretaker body in 2026-27, if there is no possibility of private owners being in place by that point (at the moment, the plan is for privatization to take place in 2027-28).
Staff from both teams were reportedly informed at the headquarters of regional governing body Cricket Victoria (which currently runs both the Renegades and Stars), earlier this week. The regional governing body has long been one of the keenest supporters of privatizing the BBL.
The name and colors of the Stars will cease to exist, with the merged side to play all their home games at the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground.
CA is currently attempting to bring a hybrid privatization model into play for next season's BBL and women's WBBL - after its initial proposals were rejected by cricket's governing bodies in New South Wales and Queensland - with this model expected to be approved at a meeting of state cricket chairs in mid-June.
From then, it has been reported that the entire sales process for a new Melbourne side could take as little as two months, including the bidding stage. This would mean that, as long as CA approves the new owners, they could be in place for the start of next season, thus negating the need for a caretaker administration.
New owners would be able to own and control the team in its entirety, and could make decisions around renaming the club and changing its colors, if they so decide.
ESPNCricinfo has reported that Cricket Victoria is open to selling the new team to owners from the Indian Premier League, and that a number of these have already expressed interest. Indeed, it is likely that the opening match from next season's BBL will take place in Chennai, as part of wider plans to increase the league's appeal in the Indian market.
The aforementioned hybrid privatization model would allow percentage stakes in several BBL and WBBL teams - including the Renegades - to be sold to private investors immediately, while the others wait for a year, or choose not to be involved at all.
CA and its chief executive, Todd Greenberg, believe that privatizing the BBL 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 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.
However, this specific news around the two Melbourne teams merging has caught other states by surprise - it has been reported that an urgent meeting with CA has been called for later this week by New South Wales, South Australia, and Queensland.
Late March saw the New Zealand Cricket governing body unveil its vision for the future of that format domestically, featuring a new competition, the NZ20.
