Major League Cricket Owners Eying Potential Big Bash League Privatization
Hobart Hurricanes are the reigning BBL champions (Photo by Albert Perez – CA/Cricket Australia via Getty Images)
Cricket Australia via Getty Images
The potential privatization of Australia’s Big Bash League continues to be closely monitored by American investors with another Major League Cricket franchise signalling interest.
An independent report from Boston Consulting Group has recommended Cricket Australia sell minority stakes in the eight BBL clubs.
The BBL, which started in 2011 and enjoys immense popularity in the heart of Australia’s cricket season in December and January, is an outlier among cricket’s T20 franchise leagues, with CA and the state associations having ownership control.
The developments have sparked major interest around the world, with IPL franchises and American tech entrepreneurs among those watching on closely.
On the back of Washington Freedom co-owner Sanjay Govil expressing interest, the powerbrokers of Seattle Orcas are also closely monitoring the BBL situation.
Orcas are the only small market team in the six-team MLC, having beaten out Chicago and Atlanta in the inaugural list of teams.
But the Pacific Northwest franchise has a high-profile ownership consortium that includes Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella and ties with GMR Group, the co-owner of the Indian Premier League’s Delhi Capital.
GMR Group, an Indian multinational conglomerate, recently secured a 49 per cent stake in Southern Brave after the recent sale of the Hundred franchises in the England competition.
“We’ll definitely evaluate it if it happens,” Orcas co-owner Soma Somasegar told me. “I think the best players and the best cricket comes out of India, Australia and the U.K. Being part of an Australian league would interest many people.”
There is an Australian footprint in the well-heeled and fledgling MLC, with Freedom having a strategic partnership with New South Wales Cricket and San Francisco Unicorns enjoying a similar arrangement with Victoria. A slew of top Australian players have been part of the MLC’s first three seasons.
Australian star Steve Smit plays for Washington Freedom (Photo by Brendon Thorne/Getty Images)
Getty Images
With BBL privatization still likely some way off, Orcas are contemplating following the lead of Freedom and Unicorns.
“We’ve been monitoring the partnerships of those franchises and contemplating whether we should partner with an Australian team,” said India-born Somasegar, who made his fortune in the U.S. having spent 27 years working at Microsoft.
“We are very interested in seeing what type of partnership we can find.”
Another headliner of the report was for the BBL to consider expansion. New Zealand and Singapore have been floated as possible overseas locations, while it is learned that Malaysia has also expressed interest.
It comes as MLC is set to expand into Canada, with Toronto likely to be one of the two new franchises to come into the competition in 2027.
“I think it’s an interesting concept,” Somasegar said. “An expanded BBL is no different than what we are thinking about with Canada in the MLC.
“If you look at most American sports leagues, there is expansion into other countries and a lot of good can come out of it.”
Seattle Orcas are the smallest market franchise in the MLC (Photo by Shaun Roy / Sportzpics for MLC)
Sportzpich / MLC
Somasegar, who these days is a venture capitalist at Madrona Venture Group, is also part of the ownership group of the Seattle Sounders in Major League Soccer. He has seen close up soccer’s big rise in the U.S. and believes there are parallels with cricket.
“If you go back to the 1980s, soccer was not well understood in this country,” he said. “But there has been a big rise for soccer since and I think you will see that with cricket development in the U.S.”
