Big Average Bash

Nursing homes were doing a 2 for 1 deal in January 

The Big Bash and all it's fireworks of big sixes, and the return of retired greats has finally been put away into the cupboard for another year. 

Cricket Australia's attempt to lure the T20 Cash Cow into the paddock was from maybe a marketing point of veiw a complete success the influx of those dusting off their old creams and rubbing a little linseed oil on the  bat created quite a storm, some more than others. Including Shane Warne making sure either he or Liz Hurley weren't very far away from a Herald Sun reporter. 

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Despite all the jazz hands from those throwing up the posters, the results on field saw the Sydney Sixes finally take out the January trophy. A team of once heralded young stars yet to fill up the potential they have in Steve Smith and Moises Henriques, and lead from the front by the evergreen Brett Lee and the true silver fox in Stuart MacGill, who even after only playing club cricket has proven that his spin is an asset in the shortest form of the game. 

Will anyone remember the match? I think in the annuals of time it will go down as an historical point of reference of when State cricket went silently into the distance without even a wave good-bye, as among the 'sell out' crowd a term I use loosely it seemed the non-cricketing public has taken a shinning to the over buffing of the cricket into a glamour sport, micro-phoned players, fireworks and bright uniforms can hide the blemishes of a dull and predictable form of cricket. 

The crowds at the Big Bash as a general rule across the competition struggled to fill the 'bigger' cricketing venues to the complete surprise of the CA, who figured people would turn up in their thousands to see two unknown sides play hit and giggle at the historical MCG. In what could only have been the complete luck of the draw, or the fortune of the Perth Scorchers who won their way to a home final, meant the under performing crowds only had to fill one of Australia's smallest venues for it's final.

The Big Bash in my eyes flopped by giving cricket supporters no base of which to build a history to follow, as stated in previous articles regarding this formation of an outside league to almost rival the State based competition is in direct contradiction into why people in Australia followed their cricket so strong between states, a 60k plus crowd crammed into the halls of the MCG to see VIC cs. NSW in a t20 match only a year ago, and with the CA drumming about cross down rivalry between two Melbourne sides that could only muster a a mild 10k. 

The failure in this competition is its dilution of its assets, the players! 

By splitting up some of the strongest States and watching players shuffle between teams you create a vacuum where the average cricketer is suddenly thrown into first class cricket, some argued that this helped to give the youth players an opportunity, yet when I see Shane Warne encouraged by a crowd to come on after only 6 overs due to boredom, only to throw up a couple of hand grenades that I'm pretty sure against a top class player would have been found somewhere near the members bar, this a glaring error in teasing people with names that ultimately won't be there next year. 

The Southern Hemisphere is a generally always been a difficult time to encourage top-class internationals to play in during the "off-season" of northern hemisphere leagues. So many negatives! there must be positives form the league that did encourage people to take up the game, and saw a rise in the number of kids running around in bright colored shirts on a Saturday morning. 

What happens when the draw of watching the smiling face of Hoggy run the boundary, and Shane Warne has finished being hit all over the park and puts his feet up and Brett Lee can only do his 'chainsaw' celebration so many times before he is liable to put his shoulder out. By banking on stars of the past, Cricket Australia have created no future for the league.