A New Year’s Day doubleheader of Big Bash League (BBL) derbies will mark the new T20 season at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG).
The BBL and WBBL matches on January 1, 2017, between the Melbourne Stars and Renegades were confirmed today. Despite some contemplation, no BBL games will be played on 24 or 25 December (Christmas Eve and Christmas Day), with administrators at Cricket Australia sticking with the known and tested formula that has made Big Bash League (BBL) Australia’s most rated sports competition on TV.
The sixth season will kickstart with the prevailing champions Sydney Thunder hosting the Sydney Sixers at Spotless Stadium in Sydney on December 20, 2016, in the Sydney Derby, and the Final would be played on January 28, 2017 (Sunday) which would be hosted by the highest-ranked qualifying team. A total of 35 games will be played in 40 days during a holiday season in Australia.
The now traditional New Year's Eve fixture will return to the Adelaide Oval, with the Strikers hosting the Sixers, while the Melbourne Derbies will again be played across the first two weekends in January.
The traditional New Year's Eve fixture (31st December 2016) will be played at the Adelaide Oval, with the Adelaide Strikers playing host to the Sydney Sixers. Also, both the Melbourne Derbies will be hosted in the first two weeks in January 2017.
The Melbourne Stars and Sydney Thunder will meet again on January 4, 2017 (Wednesday) as a replay of last year’s big final in Sydney.
The schedule also features 4 doubleheaders, and the Boxing Day match (December 26, 2016) will take place in Hobart instead of Perth as the Hobart Hurricanes take on the Melbourne Stars, a big change compared to previous seasons.
Instead, Perth will now host the second match of the New Year's Day (1 January 2017) doubleheader when the Perth Scorchers will host the Sydney Thunder.
14 doubleheaders will be played in this year's Women's Big Bash League (WBBL), up from ten which were played in last summer. "We operate on a 'one club, two teams' mentality with the men's and women's Big Bash Leagues to give fans greater options with this integrated schedule," CA's Executive GM (Operations) Mike McKenna stated.
Big Bash boasts a national average audience of 1.1 million viewers on free-to-air channel Ten in Australia, and has become Australia’s most watched sports competition ahead of the Australian Football League (AFL) and National Rugby League (NRL), who average an audience of 804 thousand and 887 thousand per match on free-to-air television, respectively.
Download the full fixture from here: http://goo.gl/uwbDDl
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