rd wrote:
Having a 14 round minor round BBL is overkill - far too much.
I would have a nine team BBL with the ninth team being the touring side - for example this summer India would join the BBL after the SCG Test.
So the BBL starts on NYE at Adelaide Oval and then through January - India would rather play 8 BBL games and take the $$$ from 8 full houses around Australia rather than useless and meaningless T20s and 50 over ODIs before half full stadiums.
Each of the 9 teams would play each other once - a total of 36 minor round games instead of the current total of 56 games.
Still have a top 4 from the 9 team comp to play the semi finals and final.
This frees up all the Australian players to play for their franchises - except the round 1 BBL games that would be played prior to the completion of the SCG Test.
Is it fair to have international sides playing in a domestic comp?
Who cares - CA many years ago had an Aust A team play England, Zimbabwe and the official Aust side in an 'official' one day comp. They were happy to keep the $$ that Aust A generated and who cared about the credibility of the comp that summer? CA certainly didn't !!
The AFL comp has little credibility - every year Crows and Port have to play each other twice simply because they are based in the same city - so in seasons where one team is very strong and the other team is very weak - there is a bonus win to the strong team - as West Coast used to receive every year during Freo's early years in the AFL.
I'd swing the other way, 6 teams, don't let it interfere with the ODI's or tests, increase salary caps to entice the touring side's players to join and to attract the bigger names going around, it's become boring because the player pool is too big, we're seeing low scores, part timers opening the bowling and taking wickets and the fielding has been somewhat woeful.
6 teams, play each other twice, top team hosts the GF, 2nd plays 3rd at home for the semi, 32 games in total, double headers on Saturday's and Sunday's.