Kmflett's Blog

Franchise cricket can be the saviour of England’s future Ashes campaigns

The Boxing Day Test in Melbourne the centre piece of Cricket Australia’s cricketing summer was truncated to two days. As a result £7.45m was lost. Cricket Australia has been losing money in recent years and reserves now stand at £11m.

The Times (30^th December 2025) quotes Todd Greeberg the CEO of Cricket Australia has saying its cost base is ‘unsustainable’.

One answer may be to franchise the Big Bash League which has been wholly owned by Cricket Australia since its inception in 2011. The Times again reports that the amount of money raised by franchising The Hundred has seen interest in Australia.

First Class cricket in Australia has just six sides with a focus on providing competitive players for the Test side.

As with The Hundred franchising the BBL would mean private owners with no loyalty to getting the best possible Australian Test team, starting of course with a window in the schedule cleared of other cricket.

None of this of course will improve the England Test team but it could make the Australian one worse. Whether this is in the best and wider interests of cricket however seems very unlikely