Peacock: The biggest decision in Cricket Australia's history looms

With the smell of decorub in the air with footy back before our eyes, this topic is a little off broadway.

Cricket Australia is facing one of the biggest decisions in its history.

Sell some of the farm - some, if not all Big Bash franchises. Or keep them.

We are talking about a half a billion dollar decision here.

Presently, the eight teams are owned by Cricket Australia but leased out to the state associations.

But now… we have ourselves a sellers market.

Willing investors. Money flying around, especially out of the all-powerful Indian Premier League franchises.

The Hundred, England’s hybrid-short form summer sugar hit, has seen some of it’s teams get sold, or partially sold to IPL buyers.

You can see what’s coming - franchises become clubs. Players get contracted. They float around the world playing there… maybe they might be able to fit some test cricket in.

It’s happening. You can’t stop the tide.

A deep dive into the latest was published in (The Age) on the weekend, written by Dan Brettig, the talk is some states reckon they could earn more by keeping the rights to the teams, and earning off broadcast and merchandise, as they do… and charging more for the rights to punt on the sport, through higher license fees with bookies.

But where is the market at the moment for Big Bash teams?

Looks like the height… investors floating through the world looking for assets.

T20 Leagues continue to pop up around the world, so the market is getting crowded. South Africa has it’s T20 comp the same time as the Big Bash. It’s going well.

There’s one in the UAE from mid-January.

Rumour is New Zealand is about to ramp up investment in its comp. Might be movement on that this week with rumours of a NZ20 competition being launched, taking away the thought a Kiwi team could join the Big Bash in years to come.

So Cricket Australia have a mammoth call to make. Our best players are massive stars on the sub-continent, far beyond what we can comprehend. Cummins, Head, Starc.. They all easily command salaries for the 3-month IPL far beyond any footy player here can. And so they should. Market rates. And by the even those millions, could be argued, are way unders. IPL players get around 15% of the revenue generated by the competition they play in, as opposed to NBA and NFL players, who get around 40% of revenue.

Anyway, I digress.

This sell the Big Bash issue is complex. So complex.

And much of it is balancing modern financial reality with what we are used to each and every summer.

Take it as a given; if Indian investment, for instance buys a 49% share in say the Sydney Thunder… and that investor already has an Australia test star on it’s books in the IPL… you reckon they’d be happy for the player to miss most of the Big Bash to play test cricket? Yeah right.

49% is in theory a minority share. But the million and million they’ll invest for that share won’t feel like a minority. They’ll want a massive say.

This places pressure on the Boxing Day test, and Sydney New Years Test. New traditions, but traditions.

Post Christmas could be Big Bash only time.

The Boxing Day test only became a formality when Kerry Packer’s Nine Network got a full grip on cricket in 1980. So that tradition is 45 years old.

A tradition borne from a need to modernise.

Granted, it was not replacing something that is brilliant, which day one at the ‘G on Boxing Day now is. But modern realities may force a re-think. If they go down this path, it’s hard to see how the Sydney Test stays in its first-week-in-January timeslot. Huge call!

Beyond calendar consideration, chuck in geopolitical tensions.

Namely, India and Pakistan.

Does Indian investment, does that lock out players from Pakistan and Bangladesh?

Again, England’s Hundred competition is balancing that issue.

Defying a preconception.. One of the Hundred teams owned by an IPL franchise - Sunrisers Leeds, coached by Dan Vettori, signed Pakistan spinner Abrar Ahmed. Purely a cricket decision. Nothing about politics.

One would hope to two remain mutually exclusive when it comes to this issue.

Personally, reckon Cricket Australia are MAD to not to sell shares in Big Bash franchises. It seems odd Cricket NSW, for instance, has a big say in the running of two competing teams. Navigating our love of test cricket… or anyone of a certain age’s love of test cricket, has no comfortable solution.

But the big picture screams… you can’t stop the tide.

Selling part of the farm, for the right terms, safeguards a future. T20 cricket around the world is taking over. It’s where the money is. It’s where the eyeballs are, and will be. You can’t stop the tide.

South Africa. England. The Emirates. USA. Soon New Zealand. See a trend here?

This decision Cricket Australia has to sell off Big Bash ownership is not quite as dramatic as Kerry Packer writing cheques for fun signing up our best cricketers in the late 70’s, and probably won’t make for a TV dramatisation in years to come… but it’s equally as momentous.

Just a hunch, but I’d be amazed if our cricketing summer looks the same now… in five years time.