Islamabad
\nAustralia batsman Usman Khawaja says the nation\u2019s Big Bash League (BBL) needs to open up to private ownership if it is to survive in an increasingly crowded market for T20 cricket content.
\nThe BBL, which runs from December to early-February 2023, will clash with South Africa\u2019s new six-team T20 tournament starting in January.
\nIndian Premier League (IPL) team owners bought all six franchises in the South African league but the BBL\u2019s eight teams are owned by governing body Cricket Australia and run by state associations.
\nA new league in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), also backed by IPL money, is scheduled to launch in January, setting the stage for intense battles for the world\u2019s top players.
\nKhawaja said the BBL faced a \u201cfork in the road\u201d over the next year or two as competition heats up.
\n\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of cogs that make the decisions but personally you shouldn\u2019t be afraid of moving the game forward even if that means that you let go a little bit on the reins,\u201d Khawaja told reporters on Friday.
\n\u201cThere are other tournaments starting up that are privatised.
\n\u201cIf you don\u2019t keep up with that, and there\u2019s a small window for the Big Bash to privatise in the next few years, and I\u2019m afraid if we don\u2019t do that we\u2019ll fall behind.\u201d
\nA number of top players have been nominated for the BBL\u2019s inaugural draft, including star Afghan spinner Rashid Khan and West Indian T20 stalwarts Kieron Pollard and Dwayne Bravo.
\nBut Khawaja said others were steering clear.
\n\u201cI\u2019ve talked to a couple and they\u2019ve not listed for the draft because they want to spend Christmas at home and then will go and play in the UAE,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Islamabad Australia batsman Usman Khawaja says the nation\u2019s Big Bash League (BBL) needs to open up to private ownership if it is to survive in an increasingly crowded market for T20 cricket content. The BBL, which runs from December to early-February 2023, will clash with South Africa\u2019s new six-team T20 tournament starting in January. Indian […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":272943,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-272919","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports"},"yoast_head":"\n