Cricket Victoria has killed off both the Melbourne Stars and Melbourne Renegades in an extraordinary reset triggered by the privatisation of Australian cricket.
Chief executive Nick Cummins confirmed on Wednesday that Cricket Victoria would only operate a single BBL team from now on, potentially known as the Bushrangers, while the second franchise would be sold off to raise funds.
Both the Stars and Renegades, clubs which date back 15 years and include former players Shane Warne and Muttiah Muralitharan, will now be lost to Australian cricket.
“Our intention is to go back to the original BBL team that we had, and have a team that is for everyone in Victoria, that wears the ‘big V’, that would still be called Melbourne,” Cummins said on SEN. “It’s a city-based team, but ultimately, a team that all Victorians connected to Victorian cricket can get behind,” Cummins said.
The Bushrangers competed in the state-based T20 competition that pre-dated the BBL’s establishment in 2011.
The revival of the traditional Victorian branding is based on market research. “We ran extensive focus groups back in January, February, around this, about: ‘OK, if we sold a team would you support the other team?’ All fans said no, they wouldn’t. ‘Would you support a team that was a Victorian team?’ And fans said yes, they would.”
Cummins accepted that some Stars and Renegades fans will be disappointed. “It’s been part of all of their life,” he said. “The Stars and the Renegades do mean a lot to a lot of people and we’ve recognised that, and [are] very conscious of that.”
He hoped “the majority” would support the new Cricket Victoria-run team, although its name was still to be confirmed. “‘The Bushrangers’ is in play, and that’s something that holds a lot of emotion and heritage for a lot of fans. What we need to consider though is that the Bushrangers is fairly gender-specific and, as opposed to when the Bushrangers existed previously, now we’ve got a WBBL team as well as a BBL team so we are mindful of that.”
The other Victorian franchise will be sold almost certainly to international investors, as the IPL’s multi-club owners keenly await the outcome of Cricket Australia’s privatisation process.
This is likely to take months, leaving the BBL in a transitional mode in 2026-27 and the Victorian franchises in limbo. One proposal is for the Renegades to continue to operate on a caretaker basis before new owners take over the following year.
The news drew concern from the players’ union, the Australian Cricketers’ Association. Chief executive Paul Marsh urged patience, and said the game “is not unified on a way forward and as a result, we are a long way off a solution”.
Players have expressed concern in the wake of Cricket Victoria’s announcement, and Marsh said discussion of privatisation before the coming season was premature. “Whilst this may or may not happen at some point in the future, we reiterate that there is a process to play out here before this can occur,” he said.
“The ACA believes now is the critical juncture for all in Australian cricket to come together to find the best model for the future of all stakeholders in our game.”
When – or indeed, if – the sale process is complete, Cummins said there will still be a so-called ‘Melbourne derby’ between the privatised entity and Cricket Victoria’s team, and it could actually be bigger than previous editions. More than 68,000 fans were attracted to the derby in January, the highest attendance for the BBL season.
“A, the derby will remain, there’ll still be two teams in Melbourne,” Cummins said. “But B, we think that second team will be able to activate parts of our community that perhaps haven’t been all that engaged in Big Bash.”
Cricket Victoria and Cricket New South Wales faced a different proposition to other state bodies when BBL privatisation was put forward, as each operated two franchises.
CNSW has chosen not to be involved in the process run by Cricket Australia, alongside Queensland.
