BBL Saga Rolls On
Melbourne Stars and Melbourne Renegades to Merge
The Melbourne Stars and the Melbourne Renegades will merge and be rebranded under a new name. Cricket Victoria (“CV”) then plan to sell their second franchise to a private investor as soon as possible. It is unclear whether CV will field two teams for the 2026-27 BBL season or whether they will field the new merged team and a private investor will field a privatized team.
The twists and turns in this process to date have been staggering, but this development further ratchets up the pressure on Cricket Australia (“CA”) to finalize at least a partial privatization of the BBL.
New South Wales, South Australia and Queensland have requested an urgent meeting with CA on Thursday to discuss the fallout from the announcement. The Australian Cricketers' Association (“ACA”) has also weighed in and has indicated that the development has created "confusion, uncertainty and anxiety" among the players. It has also been reported New South Wales were not informed of an executives trip to Chennai - which included leaders from CA, the BBL, Victoria, WA and Tasmania. The trip was to discuss the proposed BBL game to played in Chennai and to speak to prospective investors interested in buying a stake in clubs from those states.
The name for the new merged Melbourne team looks likely to be the Bushrangers (the historical name of the Victorian cricket team). Given the way things have gone with the BBL privatization, this is a perfect name for the situation.