The Big Bash League (BBL) is one of the best T20 leagues in the world. It comes close to the IPL in terms of the quality of cricket on display.
The fast and bouncy Australian wickets just add more thrill to the league. And to keep the excitement intact, Cricket Australia (CA), the country’s cricket board, revamped BBL’s format in 2023.
So what’s the current BBL format?
Let’s look at the BBL format, along with the participating teams.
How many teams participate in BBL?
Since BBL’s inception in 2011/12, eight teams have been participating in every season. The eight BBL clubs are based out of Australian cities, with two teams each from Melbourne and Sydney, and the other four come from Adelaide, Brisbane, Hobart, and Perth.
Here are the BBL teams:
- Adelaide Strikers
- Brisbane Heat
- Hobart Hurricanes
- Melbourne Renegades
- Melbourne Stars
- Perth Scorchers
- Sydney Sixers
- Sydney Thunder
Perth Scorchers are the most successful club in the BBL, with five titles thus far.
What is the format of BBL?
With the format going under changes, the BBL has seen a reduction in total matches played in a season. The CA decided to shorten the league from the 2023/24 season.
Now there are 44 matches per season as compared to 61 played in 2022/23. Of those, 40 games are part of the league stage, with the rest four forming the knockout stage.
Since the overall matches have come down, that also means teams will play fewer matches. Earlier, the league followed the double round-robin format, with teams meeting twice each other in the league stage.
Now, teams play 10 matches each as they take on three opponents twice and the other four only once.
The playoff structure, known as the BBL Finals Series, has also undergone a slight change. In the 2022/23 season, the top five teams qualified for the finals series.
The five-team finals series worked like this:
The top two sides would move into The Qualifier, while the fourth and fifth-seeded teams played in The Eliminator. The No. 3 team reached The Knock-Out, where they met The Eliminator winner.
Then the Challenger followed, where The Qualifier loser took on The Eliminator winner. The Challenger helped decide the other finalist who would play against The Qualifier winner in the summit clash.
Now, there is a four-match finals series structure in place, similar to the IPL, with the top four teams making it to the playoffs.
This is how the current finals series works:
The Qualifier remains the same, with No. 1 and No. 2 teams playing in it. Now that The Eliminator is done away with, the third and fourth-placed teams play straight into The Knock-Out.
The Knock-Out winner then reaches The Challenger, where they take on The Qualifier loser. And then winners of The Qualifier and The Knock-Out meet in the final.
Read Next | How do bigger grounds and slower outfields in Australia impact T20 cricket?
Leave a Reply