Cricket Australia firm on 'primacy' of Test cricket amid BBL sale

The governing body said that any investors know Australia's schedule for the years to come and Tests would continue to overlap BBL

Cricket Australia has warned any potential investors that want to purchase a stake in a BBL club that the competition will continue to run concurrently with Australia's traditional Test summer for the foreseeable future and that centrally contracted players will continue to put Test cricket first.

CA announced on Tuesday that it would allow private investment into the Big Bash Leagues for the first time under a self-determination model starting with beginning a sales process of the Melbourne Renegades before other states test the market.

However some states said they were still unclear on the finer details while the Australian Cricketers' Association (ACA) are also adamant that a deal on a new MoU was a long way off, which was previously deemed essential for the next phase, and independent meditation has been requested to determine whether that is the case.

Speaking to reporters in Sydney on Tuesday, CA CEO Todd Greenberg and chair Mike Baird sought to allay fears that the introduction of private investment into the BBL would spark the end of Australia's traditional Test summer, including the popular Boxing Day and New Year's Tests that have run at the same time over the course of the competition's 15-year history.

Greenberg said the Test summer would remain in place as part of the current CA broadcast deal and the next Future Tours Program that is currently being finalised.

"We've anchored the Boxing Day Test and the Sydney Test into this schedule right through to the end of our contractual obligations in 2032," Greenberg said.

Baird was asked specifically how CA would handle a potential private investor coming into the league demanding that Australian players play in the BBL rather than in Test matches.

"It's pretty easy," Baird said. "If you want to be a partner, here's the schedule currently, and we decide what the schedule is. It's a very basic protection that'll be there every step of the way.The New Year Sydney Test also raises huge sums of money for the Jane McGrath foundation•Getty Images

"I think that any new partner would understand in terms of the current schedule, the [BBL TV] viewership is often highest in those matches that followed the Test match. So there's a benefit to them in terms of the viewership of their league [and] a strong alignment of interests in that.

"We're not saying there aren't risks. There are. You've got to be practical and realistic there. We will be very clear upfront that if you want to participate, here are all the protections that we have, and anyone coming in, that's what they'll be. We'll have the control of those protections.

"Private investors will have a say in the day-to-day running of the competition. [But] we control the league, we control the schedule, and that's an important protection."

Greenberg reiterated that franchise owners will not have access to Australia Test players when matches run against the BBL. "Let me be crystal [clear] on that in the details, centrally contracted Australian players' primacy is Test cricket, and that is written in the rules and regulations that any buyer will know," he said.

"We've baked the decision-making in the governance of the sport with Cricket Australia. People are coming in at a club level. Of course, they're going to have a big voice. Of course, they're going to have opinions, and we'll respect all those opinions, but we make the decisions on behalf of Australian cricket."

The issue of centrally contracted player availability has already been an issue in the newly privatised Hundred and the ECB has carved out a Test-free window during the height of the English summer in August for the competition.

The schedule has prevented some of Australia's best players from playing in the BBL. Mitchell Starc played his first BBL game in over 10 years last summer but only because he had retired from international T20 cricket, while Test captain Pat Cummins has not played in the BBL since 2019 and has only managed 16 games across his BBL career which started in 2014.

"I think probably the schedule has been my biggest barrier over the years," Cummins said. "So I'm excited if it does open up kind of that January window that probably presents more of an opportunity for me than say just purely commercial, but it's great.

"There's only so many games we can play a year. I love if more of them were in Australia. I watch the Big Bash like most of the boys who are in the team room after a Test match, we love it. So it'd be great to be part of it."