Australian Big Bash Tournament - 2015/2016

Luke Wright (and Pietersen) again out cheaply as Melbourne Stars play Perth Scorchers and wickets falling quickly. 55/4

Great turnaround by the Stars to go through to a home semi-final. Neither Carberry nor Willey prospered and Voges played a lone hand. Semi-finals are on 21 and 22 January and the final on Sunday 24th.

I think the key set of figures emerging from this is not necessarily the attendance figures, but the success of the promoters in attracting the first-taste market:

The first edition saw 10% of fans attend their first BBL game, the second 13% and the third 22%. Last season 26% of fans were at their first BBL game, and 17% their first cricket match.

Whatever the stadium capacity is in England, and how thinly or densely the population is spread are irrelevant compared with this ability to get people in through the gates, and for the first time to a cricket match, or something closely resembling cricket. There is no doubt that the marketing of this tournament is absolutely spot-on and some of the factors in that marketing proposition are easily transportable, for example this quote from Adil Rashid:

"Every game feels like a final because there aren't many," Rashid says of the Big Bash. "There's a buzz about every fixture that maybe isn't there for games at home."

Huge commiserations to Luke Wright. His team Melbourne Stars lost the final to the Sydney Thunder after scoring 176. Thunder won
with 3 balls to spare. It was a final full of thrills and spills and one which deservedly expressed the huge success of the 2016 BBL5.

Luke's tournament exploits deserved to win the League but it wasn't to be as MS, in reality, were 10 runs shy of a winning total. Kevin
Pietersen once again shone, scoring 74 off 39 balls becoming the side's leading run scorer on 323 (av. 40.37: 3rd highest in tournament)
with Wright second in the statistics (280 runs: av. 35: 7th highest).

After a few day's rest Luke next flies off to the Pakistan T20 super League to join the Quetta Gladiators. And guess who is his England
team-mate? Kevin Pietersen again. Sign KP as the Sussex T20 O/S, Zac.

sports.pakistantimes.com/psl/

www.cricbuzz.com/live-cricket-scores/15132/syt-vs-mls-final-big-bash-league-2015-16

Lg,

Pietersen is a cricketing enigma as he doesn't play county or international cricket and makes his living as a highly
successful and highly well-paid T20 mercenary. One suspects he earns more in a year than most Internationals.

So, couldn't he be called an O/S? A cricketer without a county or a country?

The T20 Franchise Calendar is very busy in 2016 and KP is participating in all of the major events.

Now the BBL is over, next stop is the 'Pakistan Super League' (Feb 4th-23rd). Sadly, KP is not invited to the ICC
T20 World Cup (March 11th-April 3rd) - no doubt he'll be commentating for one of the major TV networks. From
there it is the IPL (April 9th-May 29th) from whence comes The English 'Blast'. Here is a major chance for KP to
shine in England. 

Surrey is the obvious choice but why not another county? And with his growing friendship and shared participation
in the BBL and Pakistan Super League with Luke Wright, Sussex have as good a chance of acquiring his services, as
do Surrey truly require KP with the abundance of their T20 player wealth?

What is interesting is the CPL which was played last June to July is on hold because of the complication over the Windies
four Test matches against India from the beginning of July until the middle of August. This means KP could be available
for a majority, if not all, of the English 'Blast' period (June to August). And being at Sussex offers him a daily commute back
to his family at Wentworth golf course.

Purely speculation, of course, but quite feasible.

Naturally, the sceptics will talk about money, but nothing would give KP more pleasure than to rub the noses of the ECB, so
honour before wealth may come first and given the huge amounts he's already making from the Franchises, the opportunity
to be close to his family during the summer months will mean a great deal and where a cut in wages to achieve this is quite
attractive.

barbadostridents.wordpress.com/2015/08/15/when-will-cpl-2016-take-place/

For he himself has said it

And its greatly to his credit

Yet another feature to rub the ECB faces in.

'Journey to a million: the BBL success story' - When more than 80,000 turn up for a domestic match, women's games
are beamed around the world, and average attendances outnumber that of the World Cup, you know cricket has found
a winner

www.espncricinfo.com/big-bash-league-2015-16/content/story/965001.html