Innholdsfortegnelse for BBL Guide 2021/2022 i ABC Cricket Magazine

The T20 format has become cricket’s takeaway, alongside contemporary necessities like Zoom and food deliveries. The COVID pandemic may have disrupted our lives and playing schedules, but eyeballs have remained fastened to the T20 phenomena, paraded as WBBL, IPL and WT20. Perhaps more than any other sport, cricket has adapted itself to the expectations of a sound bitten and instantly gratified world. The shape of modern Australian cricket is underpinned by the revenues CA derives, and the pandemic has bashed a hole in the finances. So how will the game prosper commercially? Will CA sell off the BBL franchises to survive? And will those franchises attract the best players, akin to the IPL auction system? Change is not a synonym for progress, but is inevitable, like golden ducks and the…

As it turns 11 years old during this cricket summer, the men’s Big Bash League has become one of those young relatives who is suddenly and disconcertingly not a baby anymore. Into double figures and surging towards adolescence, Australia’s domestic Twenty20 competition is no longer new and is instead now part of the status quo. When the BBL was launched, it was jarring how artificial it all felt. The fluorescent team colours, the focus-grouped names, the meteorology mascots, the utter lack of difference between two teams named Melbourne and two teams named Sydney. All of it was apparently about being appealing to children; little of it appealed to people who already liked cricket. Which was, we were told, almost entirely the point. And fair enough – if growth beyond that…

Humble and hungry” is the mantra of the Brisbane Heat Women’s team. It also perfectly epitomises their captain, Jess Jonassen. The 29-year-old all-rounder is in the second season of her captaincy in the WBBL and is going about business in her quiet, unassuming, yet highly effective way. Jonassen has been part of two successful WBBL campaigns already and has been matter-of-fact about the secrets of success, stating consistency in performances was the key. For the first title win, in WBBL04, it was Brisbane Heat who were chasing. For WBBL05, the Heat became the chased. Jonassen explains the mental shift to win back-to-back titles. “It was about trying to have that mentality that we were going out there to win it again, as opposed to defending the title,” Jonassen tells ABC…

He remains one of the enigmas of Australian cricket, a man oozing talent, power and an ability to influence a contest, either with bat or ball. However, the clock is ticking on Mitch Marsh at-last morphing into the consistent threat cricket insiders still think he can be. Now 30 years old, settled and engaged to girlfriend Greta Mack, Marsh hopes not only that the injury hurdles of yesteryear are gone, but that he is primed for a stellar Big Bash League campaign, as his Perth Scorchers seek redemption for falling one step short in last year’s grand final against the Sydney Sixers. “I probably feel more confident with my preparation, and that often allows me to go out there and just play the game and to try and perform for…

The Australian women’s cricket team is one of our most adored national sporting sides. And sure, the squad’s success has seen it dominate world rankings and break records on a regular basis, but it’s the group’s values which make them so universally loved: the spirit in which they play, their loyalty and mateship, their endearing and unique personalities, and a never-say-die attitude. Simply put, as cricket fans, it’s hard not to have fun watching them have fun. And their dedication to making the game a better place for the next generation means there’s no time for egos, because there’s always a bigger picture behind everything they do. As the team has evolved and transitioned into the professional era, there are three players in particular who have influenced incredible change in…

The time between Carlos Brathwaite hitting four sixes from as many deliveries to win the 2016 World T20 (as it was then called) to Papua New Guinea losing two wickets for no runs in its first 11 deliveries to open the 2021 T20 World Cup was five and a half long years. In that time, the Australian men’s cricket team competed in two Ashes series, one ODI World Cup and a World Test Championship. In the wider world there was a global pandemic, an entire Trump presidency and a botched Best Picture Oscar presentation (sorry La La Land). Given all of this, it’s hardly surprising Ian Bishop’s famous demand to “remember the name” was just about the only aspect of the 2016 World T20 that stuck in the long-term memory.…

ACTIVITY RATE Stat that measures percentage of balls a batter scores off. “He’s effective at rotating the strike and has a high activity rate.” BASH BOOST Introduced in 2020-21, the team with the higher score at the 10 over mark gets this bonus point. BAT FLIP Not-so-subtle preparation for a ramp shot. See Aaron Finch’s innings vs Bangladesh in the 2021 T20 World Cup Super 12. BAT SPEED Baseball-esque term that describes how fast a batter can swing the willow, and is an essential quality for power hitters. “Warner didn’t hit that cleanly, but with his bat speed, it was enough to clear the rope.” CAMEO Some say an overused term for a brief but high- scoring innings with the bat, with a desire to entertain taking priority over winning.…

HOW THEY’LL FINISH 1 Brisbane Heat2 Melbourne Renegades3 Sydney Sixers4 Perth Scorchers5 Adelaide Strikers6 Hobart Hurricanes7 Sydney Thunder8 Melbourne Stars 1 BRISBANE HEAT The Heat have a great advantage this season: a settled squad, which can’t be underestimated in this format. They’re climbers, and they’ll be able to build on their third placing in BBL 10. Though they’ve lost Joe Burns, they still might have the inventive Marnus Labuschagne for the finals, if they make it that far. Clubbing CHRIS LYNN remains, and, relieved of the captaincy, might be free to open his shoulders with abandon. Tom Abell, the innovative and unorthodox English import, is an able smasher with a strike rate of 145. The other English signing, pocket dynamo Ben Duckett, joins him. At the time of writing, we’re not…

It will be part of many trivia questions for years to come. The first-ever ODI match to be played in front of no crowd, in the midst of a global pandemic. The setting was the Sydney Cricket Ground, and rarely has the historic venue had a more surreal feel to it. Not just because you could hear that otherwise-elusive sound of bat on ball crystal-clear on your TV screens … this was, thankfully, a few months before fake crowd noise came into vogue. For the record, Australia walked away comfortable 71-run winners, after the Kiwis were bundled out for 187 in pursuit of their target of 259. Mitchell Marsh was player of the match for his wonderful all-round performance that included a crucial 27 in the lower-order and three wickets…