Kiwi teams in the Big Bash League? The Grade Cricketer on NZ’s T20 future

As New Zealand looks to keep pace with the rest of the evolution of Twenty20 cricket, the idea of a joint franchise league with Australia is one that could be a lifeline for a sport struggling in this part of the world.

Since its invention in 2003, Twenty20 has taken the sport to audiences like never before. Five years later, the foundation of the Indian Premier League (IPL) saw the game pass a point of no return, as the franchise model thrust cricket even further away from tradition.

Sixteen years on from that, though, New Zealand is the only major nation not to adopt that same model, and instead relies on the traditional major association structure.

In a sense, NZ Cricket’s stance has paid dividends, in a way. The competitiveness of domestic cricket has paved the way for arguably the greatest generation of men’s players this country has ever seen. However, the changing commercial reality shows that the game is moving on at an alarming rate.

Since 2022, the majority of the Black Caps side that reached finals in all three forms of the game have either retired, or opted out of central contracts to pursue franchise opportunities.

Kane Williamson, who has spent the last eight years as Black Caps captain, became the latest to opt out, until Lockie Ferguson is expected to do the same when the contracting process is finalised later this month.

In the case of Williamson, Ferguson, Trent Boult and Jimmy Neesham, the reality is clear. It’s more beneficial for them to use their skill sets and maximise earnings while they can.

Boult has spent the last two years as a freelancer, and enjoyed stints in India, the UAE and USA. Neesham on the other hand has taken his talents to the likes of South Africa and England.

New Zealand isn’t the only country trying to navigate this balancing act. South Africa, the West Indies and Sri Lanka have also suffered trying to keep players committed to the international cause at the expense of franchise opportunities.

The UAE’s International League T20 and South Africa’s SA20, both home to large investment and ownership from India, clash with New Zealand’s summer, leaving them unavailable to play for the Black Caps during peak months.

Given transtasman geography, Australia also has issues in finding that balance.

At present, the Big Bash League (BBL) clashes with Australia’s home test summer, and leaves the competition bereft of their international stars in the same way that New Zealand does with the Super Smash.

And with the growing influence of the ILT20, the BBL also lost some of its marquee players for the end of the season, including former Black Cap Colin Munro, as they headed to the UAE.

In both New Zealand’s and Australia’s case, their T20 leagues clashing with one bankrolled by India is a no-win situation.

As podcasters of international acclaim, Australian pair The Grade Cricketer are uniquely placed to understand the way things sit.

Since Australia’s test series defeat to India at the start of 2021, their podcast has grown in audience, and seen them travel around the world to cover cricket.

And after travelling to India, and most recently to the USA for this year’s T20 World Cup thanks to Wise, the pair – Sam Perry and Ian Higgins – understand modern cricket better than most.

“It feels like every other country has placed T20 in its peak cricket season, and its peak cricket viewing window,” Perry told the Herald.

“Australia has tried to actually have its cake and eat it too and do both. We play test cricket and T20 cricket at the same time.

“Administrators are not sure how to tell the public that T20 cricket is inevitably the thing that is going to be on when Australians are watching cricket.”

So, is it time for New Zealand and Australia to unite?

Across other sports, a combined league or at the very least a Kiwi presence in an Australian competition isn’t out of the ordinary.

Be it Super Rugby Pacific, the NRL, NBL or A-League, Kiwi teams have shown they can match the best Australia has to offer.

In terms of cricket, though, New Zealand and Australia have never merged at club or franchise level.

The presence of the ILT20 and SA20, with expansion in the pipeline, puts the BBL at risk more than New Zealand’s Super Smash – with NZ Cricket content in it being made up of mostly if not entirely local players.

And as cricket on both sides of the Tasman faces a changing future, the Grade Cricketer pair welcome the idea of New Zealand’s involvement in some capacity.

“I actually had this thought this morning, I think that would be a good idea,” said Higgins.

“I don’t think there’d be antipathy,” added Perry. “I actually think the issue in Australian cricket is an apathy towards T20 cricket, irrespective of whether there are Kiwi teams involved or not.

“In Australasian cricket, there is a breaking point coming. Ultimately, the Indian franchises and private money will come in with offers to secure that timezone.

“I think that the ILT20 and the SA20 and their expansion into the windows of Australian and New Zealand Cricket is strategic. It’s about putting pressure on Australia to say ‘are you going to allow us to buy into this? Or will you allow us to expand and kill your domestic competition?’

“That’s when we have to discuss whether that’s something that should be accommodated or not.

“I think Aussies would like Kiwis being part of the BBL. It would give it a sense of grandiosity, it would grow it. There’s ultimately a good and friendly relationship between Australians and New Zealanders, particularly when it comes to sport.

“There’s a lot of familiarity with New Zealand teams being part of Australian competitions. I’m not sure it deals with the major question of ‘can you survive without private Indian money?’”

For New Zealand Cricket’s part, though, that desire is not reciprocated.

In a statement to the Herald, a NZ Cricket spokesperson outlined the organisation is firmly against the idea of a transtasman franchise competition.

In part, that’s down to a want to preserve opportunities for New Zealand players to be given an opportunity at professional level. Any unification would almost certainly result in the six major associations’ presence being limited.

Should that position change, the BBL’s current broadcast deal runs until 2031. The expiry of the current deal could facilitate further expansion, but for now there is nothing on the table for trans-Tasman unification.

Cricket Australia did not respond to the Herald’s request for comment.

The longer countries like New Zealand and Australia resist, though, the greater the risk will be that players vote with their feet.

Cricket is now at a point where the international game needs the players more than the players need the international game.

If that sees said players have to pick between playing for their country or earning to set their families up, recent history already shows which direction that will go in.

The West Indies’ fall from being an unstoppable force in the 1980s to a side currently ranked eighth in the world in test cricket is all the evidence needed to show that players will go where the money is – as is their right as professionals.

Should the game continue on its current trajectory, it’s not beyond the realm of possibility that the Super Smash falls into the category of being a second-tier competition, where its best players are swooped up by more lucrative contracts around the world.

And, while acknowledging it’s only the opinion of two podcasters, New Zealand’s place in international cricket as a competitive force is far from secure.

“I think ‘survival’ is a loaded term, it’s not appropriate for Australians to judge what survival is for New Zealand Cricket,” said Perry.

“But to speak on the theme of it, any international body now understands that the domestic franchise competition is the commercial driver of its cricket output.

“I think that unless you have a thriving domestic franchise T20 competition that attracts the best players, you’re going to find it very difficult to secure broadcast money, audience and players – the three things that comprise a successful cricket venture.”

Regardless of any outcome, consensus points towards a reality that can already be seen. With India boasting a population in the billions, and with cricket being its most popular sport, the nation has become the focal point of the world game.

Like what Europe is to football, and the USA is to basketball, India is to cricket, and the IPL is now going to have the most decisive say in how it operates.

India’s influence extends far beyond its own shores as well. Aside from owning the SA20 and most of the ILT20, IPL sides also have stakes in the West Indies’ Caribbean Premier League, and American Major League Cricket.

And as franchise cricket expands even further, it’s not beyond the realm of possibility India’s influence will warrant a global calendar at club level, where players move between leagues throughout a year.

But India’s presence is not something to be feared. Were it not for India, there’s no way the game would have taken this year’s T20 World Cup to the USA.

What’s more, the financial rewards now on offer to players have seen cricket become a career option for many.

However, fans of the game in its most traditional sense have hit out at the influence of the shortest format, as the sport they know changes before their eyes.

For Perry and Higgins, who have just returned to Australia from the US, the popularity of the World Cup – albeit mostly from expats – is something to be embraced.

“A lot of these conversations are predicated on the idea that Indian cricket has nefarious interests that will cripple the game in different countries,” concluded Perry.

“There is a world and bridges that can be built if people understand how much south Asian people love the game, and feel a connection to the game that can help it thrive.

“We question our assumptions about seeing Indian cricket as ‘impure’ or things other than benevolent. Having spent time in India, fans there absolutely love the game.

“We thought we’d go to the US and be plonked out into some wasteland to be part of a TV show to be beamed back into India. We saw a lot of south Asian migrants who are extremely keen on the game and connection to home.

“South Asians are the only people that take cricket with them everywhere they go. There’s a reason why their fandom and size of India bankrolls the game.

“There is some introspection in the Anglosphere of accepting that, and building bridges between people, rather than seeing south Asian interests as monopolistic and wanting to kill things.

“That is the reality of the game. Unless Australia, New Zealand, Pakistan and England create some sort of alliance to push back on Indian cricket, I do feel like it’s a bicycle coming up against a steam train.”

“Cricket’s tried to make it in America, several times,” added Higgins. “T20 is the best shot there’s ever been to actually grow the game.

“I’m still reconciling with that. For me, cricket is test match cricket. It’s the traditional rivalries, it’s my association to family, and where I’m from, what I grew up with.

“But this form of cricket is just way more appealing to way more people, and into new markets – to use a dirty commercial term – that will actually grow the game.

“It should be in Nepal, it should be in Canada, it should be in the USA and Papua New Guinea.

“What if that means we all get to experience cricket in new places? I still struggle to figure out what T20 actually is, because it really is so foreign to ‘the purest form of the game’.

“But, there’s no question that a hell of a lot of people like T20 cricket way more than they like the other formats of the game.

“They’re going to be south Asian diaspora, they’re going to be Aussie, Kiwi, English expats. But that market already exists in the US. That’s where the game is going to go, due to market forces.”

Alex Powell is an Online Sports Editor for the NZ Herald. He has been a sports journalist since 2016, and previously worked for both Newshub and 1News.