Potential Big Bash League Privatization Sparks Major Interest In The U.S.
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.
But there are winds of change, particularly after the recent sale of Hundred franchises in the England competition with the teams valued at $1.3 billion.
Govil, Montreal-born but grew up in India before making his fortune in the U.S. after launching Infinite Computer Solutions in 2001, secured a 50 per cent stake in Welsh Fire, a professional cricket team in the Hundred that has a $110 million valuation.
Along with no doubt many other investors, particularly in the U.S. and India, Govil is monitoring the BBL developments closely. While privatization is widely anticipated, there has been pushback from some states and a decision is not expected for a while.
'Absolutely (interested). Monitoring it with great interest and when the time is right then we will evaluate,' Govil told me in a phone interview.
"I'm obviously a little biased with Major League Cricket, but I believe that the top four leagues in the world are going to be IPL (Indian Premier League), MLC, BBL and the Hundred.
'Just based on economic size and popularity of the sport in those countries, even in the U.S, which has so many expat Indians.'
With Australian superstar batter Steve Smith on the books of both Freedom and Fire, and with Washington having a partnership with Cricket New South Wales, Govil does seemingly have an early preference
'I have an admiration for Sydney,' he laughed. 'But I'll keep my options open.'
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.
'That's a great concept,' Govil said of possible BBL expansion. 'If you look at MLC planning to expand into Canada, and if the BBL expands into New Zealand and South-East Asia, then it supports my view that the four big leagues basically represent large parts of the world.'
The affluent city-state of Singapore looms as an intriguing option as it attempts to re-emerge as a cricket destination reinforced by recently hosting the International Cricket Council's annual meeting.
It hosted a trio of ODI tournaments around the turn of the century, and now sports a magnificent 55,000-seat national stadium, the showpiece of the Singapore Sports Hub in Kallang on the south coast of the island.
The national stadium has hosted major sports events, including regular soccer games featuring some of the world's biggest clubs but, disappointingly, cricket has never been played there.
There had been discussions of the IPL being based there in its early years and so too the Pakistan national team when they were unable to host matches due to security issues. A T20 international match between Australia and Sri Lanka was also once mooted.
Having hosted many tournaments, becoming a hub for Associate cricket in South-East Asia, neighboring Malaysia are keen to get in on any possible BBL expansion although the country does not boast the type of showy stadium for cricket like in Kallang.
It is all for CA and its states to consider, as interest from abroad heightens.
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CNN
7 minutes ago
- CNN
Rivals and Friends: How the World Transplant Games Connected Erik and Elmar
Can one of your biggest sports rivals also be one of your biggest fans? If you ask World Transplant Games competitors Erik Van Rompaye of Belgium and Germany's Elmar Sprink, the answer is yes. The two met in 2023 at the Games – an Olympic-style event designed to raise awareness about organ donation and encourage recipients to get fit – in Perth, Australia. Van Rompaye, 54, received a liver transplant in 2021. Sprink, 53, got a new heart in 2012. Both were already accomplished endurance athletes long before their surgeries. Ahead of the Games, Van Rompaye heard that Sprink was 'the man' to beat in Perth. He was right. But in the 5K road race and sprint triathlon, Van Rompaye edged the German out for gold with Sprink taking silver and bronze, respectively. On the medal podium, they struck up a conversation and discovered they'd both competed in the prestigious IRONMAN World Championship in Hawaii, a brutal triathlon competition that sees participants complete a 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike race and a marathon-distance run. 'Before that, I didn't know anyone who was doing so much sport after a transplant,' Van Rompaye told CNN Sports. 'Not those long distances. That was not so common at all.' Since Perth, they've kept in touch, swapping notes on training, injuries and aging. This week, they'll face each other again at the 2025 World Transplant Games in Dresden, Germany, yet both arrive in central Europe with new challenges to overcome. Nerve damage from Van Rompaye's surgery has slowed his running while a recent back injury sidelined Sprink from a half marathon. Around 2,200 participants – including organ donors and donor families – aged 4 to 89 from 51 countries will compete in events ranging from track and field to badminton, swimming, and even pétanque (a French boules sport). Sprink has competed in several endurance competitions since his transplant, including three World Transplant Games and two 691K Cape Epic mountain bike races. He says he's the first person with a heart transplant to complete the IRONMAN World Championship in Hawaii. Van Rompaye's new liver has helped him complete the European Transplant Games, two Olympic distance triathlons – 1.5K swim, a 40K bike ride, and a 10K run – and the New York City Marathon. Before their transplants, they both played soccer and ran other endurance races. Now, their goals are just as ambitious – Sprink wants to qualify for another IRONMAN World Championship, while Van Rompaye is training for the Ultra-Trail du Mont Blanc, one of the world's most prestigious trail races with a distance of roughly 106.3 miles (171km) and an elevation gain of almost 32,940 feet (10,000m). 'It's a bit of chasing dreams,' Van Rompaye said. 'Life is about adapting … It's not what happens to you, it's what you do with it afterwards.' Sprink agrees, telling CNN that he sees sports as a way to build purpose and good health: 'If you look at the side effects of the medication, you can reduce some of them with sport – healthy nutrition, managing your weight and blood pressure, working out every day,' he said. Common side effects of immunosuppressants, medications used to prevent organ rejection, include increased rates of cancer and diabetes , vomiting, and even hair thinning or loss. 'Focus on something and it makes you not think about the organ stuff so much,' he added. The World Transplant Games are built on decades of research showing that exercise improves transplant recipients' physical and mental health. Which organs have the participants had transplanted? Bone marrow/Stem cell - 144 Double Lung - 69 Heart - 169 Heart-Lung - 3 Kidney - 647 Liver - 318 Pancreas - 1 Pancreas-Kidney - 16 Pancreatic Islets Cells - 1 Single Lung - 4 Germany was chosen as this year's host country partly to address its low organ donation rates in comparison to other countries – just 11.6 deceased donors per million compared to 41.9 in the US and Spain's 48.9. The reasons for this include long wait times and cultural and policy barriers to donation. Almost all solid-organ recipients must take lifelong immunosuppressants, which can impact performance. The Games aim to level the playing field by having immunosuppressed athletes compete against one another. Dr. Patricia Painter, a retired clinical exercise physiologist who studied transplant recipients at UCSF and the University of Utah, has measured how their bodies adapt – oxygen intake, muscle growth, recovery. 'Especially when you look at the comorbidities after transplant – hypertension, weight gain, diabetes – the prevention is diet and exercise,' she told CNN Sports. 'Most people die of cardiovascular disease after transplant, not because of their transplant.' Dr. Diethard Monbaliu, an abdominal transplant surgeon in Belgium who was part of Van Rompaye's team, agrees: exercise is medicine. But for transplant athletes, he stresses moderation. Strenuous training combined with immunosuppression can raise infection and cardiovascular problems. 'Mild to moderate exercise – up to about 60% of peak oxygen uptake – actually lowers infections,' he said. 'But above that, you see the opposite.' Transplant athletes are rare; IRONMAN finishers like Van Rompaye and Sprink are rarer still. Monbaliu says more research on high performance athletes is needed, but their presence proves that elite athletes belong at the Games too. World Transplant Games President Liz Schick is a liver transplant recipient and describes herself as the type of athlete who 'meets someone (in a race) who's about to give up, sticks with them and stops them from giving up.' She says the federation has discussed tailoring events for elite competitors, but stresses the Games are also about inclusion. 'It's great to be competitive and to want to win, but we mustn't forget the others,' she told CNN Sports. For Sprink, what makes his friendship with Van Rompaye special is that it isn't dominated by transplant talk. 'In the beginning, sure, we said, 'I've got a new liver, I've got a new heart.' But after two sentences, we were on to racing plans and training problems … I love that much more because I don't want to think over and over again about organ transplantation.' Van Rompaye admits the Games sometimes make him wonder if he honors his donor enough – he has written to his donor's family, while Sprink has not yet had contact with his. Both agree that mental health and well-being are just as critical as physical recovery. 'I always tell people: after the transplant, go look after your mental health right away,' Sprink said. 'In the beginning, everyone is just happy to be alive. But a lot of people struggle in the post-transplant process.' As they prepare to race again in Dresden, the medals matter – but the friendship may matter more. For Van Rompaye and Sprink, the Games are proof that rivalry can deepen respect, and competition can build connection. If you are interested in following the Games, the opening and closing ceremonies and track & field events will live-streamed on YouTube and
CNN
17 minutes ago
- CNN
Rivals and Friends: How the World Transplant Games Connected Erik and Elmar
Can one of your biggest sports rivals also be one of your biggest fans? If you ask World Transplant Games competitors Erik Van Rompaye of Belgium and Germany's Elmar Sprink, the answer is yes. The two met in 2023 at the Games – an Olympic-style event designed to raise awareness about organ donation and encourage recipients to get fit – in Perth, Australia. Van Rompaye, 54, received a liver transplant in 2021. Sprink, 53, got a new heart in 2012. Both were already accomplished endurance athletes long before their surgeries. Ahead of the Games, Van Rompaye heard that Sprink was 'the man' to beat in Perth. He was right. But in the 5K road race and sprint triathlon, Van Rompaye edged the German out for gold with Sprink taking silver and bronze, respectively. On the medal podium, they struck up a conversation and discovered they'd both competed in the prestigious IRONMAN World Championship in Hawaii, a brutal triathlon competition that sees participants complete a 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike race and a marathon-distance run. 'Before that, I didn't know anyone who was doing so much sport after a transplant,' Van Rompaye told CNN Sports. 'Not those long distances. That was not so common at all.' Since Perth, they've kept in touch, swapping notes on training, injuries and aging. This week, they'll face each other again at the 2025 World Transplant Games in Dresden, Germany, yet both arrive in central Europe with new challenges to overcome. Nerve damage from Van Rompaye's surgery has slowed his running while a recent back injury sidelined Sprink from a half marathon. Around 2,200 participants – including organ donors and donor families – aged 4 to 89 from 51 countries will compete in events ranging from track and field to badminton, swimming, and even pétanque (a French boules sport). Sprink has competed in several endurance competitions since his transplant, including three World Transplant Games and two 691K Cape Epic mountain bike races. He says he's the first person with a heart transplant to complete the IRONMAN World Championship in Hawaii. Van Rompaye's new liver has helped him complete the European Transplant Games, two Olympic distance triathlons – 1.5K swim, a 40K bike ride, and a 10K run – and the New York City Marathon. Before their transplants, they both played soccer and ran other endurance races. Now, their goals are just as ambitious – Sprink wants to qualify for another IRONMAN World Championship, while Van Rompaye is training for the Ultra-Trail du Mont Blanc, one of the world's most prestigious trail races with a distance of roughly 106.3 miles (171km) and an elevation gain of almost 32,940 feet (10,000m). 'It's a bit of chasing dreams,' Van Rompaye said. 'Life is about adapting … It's not what happens to you, it's what you do with it afterwards.' Sprink agrees, telling CNN that he sees sports as a way to build purpose and good health: 'If you look at the side effects of the medication, you can reduce some of them with sport – healthy nutrition, managing your weight and blood pressure, working out every day,' he said. Common side effects of immunosuppressants, medications used to prevent organ rejection, include increased rates of cancer and diabetes , vomiting, and even hair thinning or loss. 'Focus on something and it makes you not think about the organ stuff so much,' he added. The World Transplant Games are built on decades of research showing that exercise improves transplant recipients' physical and mental health. Which organs have the participants had transplanted? Bone marrow/Stem cell - 144 Double Lung - 69 Heart - 169 Heart-Lung - 3 Kidney - 647 Liver - 318 Pancreas - 1 Pancreas-Kidney - 16 Pancreatic Islets Cells - 1 Single Lung - 4 Germany was chosen as this year's host country partly to address its low organ donation rates in comparison to other countries – just 11.6 deceased donors per million compared to 41.9 in the US and Spain's 48.9. The reasons for this include long wait times and cultural and policy barriers to donation. Almost all solid-organ recipients must take lifelong immunosuppressants, which can impact performance. The Games aim to level the playing field by having immunosuppressed athletes compete against one another. Dr. Patricia Painter, a retired clinical exercise physiologist who studied transplant recipients at UCSF and the University of Utah, has measured how their bodies adapt – oxygen intake, muscle growth, recovery. 'Especially when you look at the comorbidities after transplant – hypertension, weight gain, diabetes – the prevention is diet and exercise,' she told CNN Sports. 'Most people die of cardiovascular disease after transplant, not because of their transplant.' Dr. Diethard Monbaliu, an abdominal transplant surgeon in Belgium who was part of Van Rompaye's team, agrees: exercise is medicine. But for transplant athletes, he stresses moderation. Strenuous training combined with immunosuppression can raise infection and cardiovascular problems. 'Mild to moderate exercise – up to about 60% of peak oxygen uptake – actually lowers infections,' he said. 'But above that, you see the opposite.' Transplant athletes are rare; IRONMAN finishers like Van Rompaye and Sprink are rarer still. Monbaliu says more research on high performance athletes is needed, but their presence proves that elite athletes belong at the Games too. World Transplant Games President Liz Schick is a liver transplant recipient and describes herself as the type of athlete who 'meets someone (in a race) who's about to give up, sticks with them and stops them from giving up.' She says the federation has discussed tailoring events for elite competitors, but stresses the Games are also about inclusion. 'It's great to be competitive and to want to win, but we mustn't forget the others,' she told CNN Sports. For Sprink, what makes his friendship with Van Rompaye special is that it isn't dominated by transplant talk. 'In the beginning, sure, we said, 'I've got a new liver, I've got a new heart.' But after two sentences, we were on to racing plans and training problems … I love that much more because I don't want to think over and over again about organ transplantation.' Van Rompaye admits the Games sometimes make him wonder if he honors his donor enough – he has written to his donor's family, while Sprink has not yet had contact with his. Both agree that mental health and well-being are just as critical as physical recovery. 'I always tell people: after the transplant, go look after your mental health right away,' Sprink said. 'In the beginning, everyone is just happy to be alive. But a lot of people struggle in the post-transplant process.' As they prepare to race again in Dresden, the medals matter – but the friendship may matter more. For Van Rompaye and Sprink, the Games are proof that rivalry can deepen respect, and competition can build connection. If you are interested in following the Games, the opening and closing ceremonies and track & field events will live-streamed on YouTube and
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Caribbean looks to revive passion and pride for cricket – and for the region
When they toured overseas in the 1970s, West Indies cricketers were sometimes subjected to barrages of racist abuse. But back home in the Caribbean, the men were heroes, with families huddled around radios and televisions whenever they played and shouts of jubilation erupting across entire communities whenever they won. Today, the generation of players who won two World Cups, in 1975 and 1979, are acclaimed as living legends for stepping up to the crease regardless of the challenges – and triumphing over teams from larger, more developed nations. And as the region celebrates Emancipation Month to commemorate the end of slavery, they have been hailed as figures of regional pride whose mastery of a game imported by the British became a powerful symbol of political and cultural resistance. Earlier this month, St Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) hosted the first-ever Emancipation Cricket Festival, which the culture and tourism minister, Carlos James, described as a reminder of the powerful link 'between our emancipation, resistance, our Caribbean culture and the birth of Caribbean cricket'. 'Some folks ask, why are you linking cricket – which is a game of the English – to emancipation. How does it correlate? Well, it was a period where every Caribbean national was glued to their radios … their television sets, to follow these men who went out in the middle of the cricket pitch,' James said. By touring – and winning – that generation of sportsmen sent a powerful message, he said: 'They were making a political statement that we are young Black men from small Caribbean islands – and we can dominate the world.' James said that understanding the link between sport and politics – and reviving the collective passion for the game – could help turn the tide for today's West Indies team, which has performed poorly in recent games. St Vincent and the Grenadines' prime minister, Ralph Gonsalves, one of the region's strongest voices for reparations from Europe for the genocide of Native peoples and the enslavement of African people, said the aim of the emancipation festival was to bring awareness to the region's period of struggle and resistance. 'Cricket, a game brought to us … by the British colonists, became our own existential instrument to aid our quest for national liberation, liberty, equality, fairness and justice,' he said. 'We absorbed this English sport, mastered it, transcended its limits, made it our own, redefined it - and took it beyond the boundaries.' He added that today, 'cricketing culture' remained vital to the region. But such is the state of Caribbean cricket that Caricom, the 15-country regional bloc, recently said that it was 'deeply concerned … about all aspects of the current state of the game in the region'. In a statement, Caricom said: 'Cricket has, for decades, been a platform through which our small nations have collectively stood tall on the world stage. West Indies Cricket is very much a 'public good'.' It added that 'the [West Indies] team's recent performance is a moment of reckoning for this cherished Caribbean institution'. Describing cricket as a 'glue that has kept us together', Sir Clive Lloyd, who twice led the West Indies to world cup victory, welcomed the intervention by Caricom, saying: 'We are not a very rich area and [it will be good] if they can inject cash and whatever it is that is needed.' Kesrick Williams, 35, a former cricketer from St Vincent, said some of today's players were becoming disillusioned and needed more support. He called for a change in the general culture of West Indies cricket to revive passion for the sport among children and young people. 'I can't tell when last I saw cricket being played in the road and the traffic had to stop. We have to build back that cricket culture and that firm love for the game,' he said. 'Growing up, what would put a smile on my dad's face was watching cricket. As a youngster when I saw that … I fell in love with cricket.' James said Caricom was hoping to include the cricket heroes of the 70s – who were recently the subject of a set of a commemorative stamps in SVG – in discussions about the game: 'Most of the legends are still around. And if we can take an ounce of passion that they have, and we move that from their generation to the next generation of Caribbean cricketers, it will make a whole heap of difference.'
