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Chapter 1: What led to the Melbourne Renegades winning their first Big Bash title?
The Melbourne Renegades somehow have won their first Big Bash title. No one here knows how they've done it, but they have. A 13-run win, the most unlikely of victories for the men in red.
That was the pinnacle of crosstown rivalry in the BBL, the All-Melbourne final of the summer of 2018-19. At its inception, Melbournians were pushed away from the Bushrangers who had dominated the state-based T20 tournaments and asked to choose between green and red, between the MCG and Docklands, between Shane Warne and Aaron Finch.
It was a high-risk strategy, but by BBL5, the Stars and Renegades drew 80,883 to the MCG derby in January, a staggering turnout for domestic cricket. The four highest attendances in the competition's history have been at MCG derbies, and earlier this year, 68,124 were in attendance. Across the two games at the G in Marvel, they drew more than 110,000 fans.
That Docklands final at the climax of Big Bash 8 proved a seminal moment, and not just for the Renegades' miraculous victory under Andrew McDonald and Finch. In the aftermath, Cricket Victoria dissolved the independent boards that had run the rival clubs with a mixture of commercial acumen, marketing panache and cricketing smarts.
CV brought the stars and renegades in-house and dismissed a wealth of specialised knowledge. In my time covering sport, it is arguably the worst decision by a sports administration made in this town. And it failed. The performance of the two teams on and off the field have been near on embarrassing at times since. And now the two teams have been abolished.
For 15 years, fan bases have been nurtured and rivalry cultivated, and now essentially we're being told it was worthless, or at least dispensable and easily replaced. These are not straightforward conversations. I don't doubt for a moment the research that Renegades fans said, we're not being sold to a new entity. Oh, and by the way, we will not go and follow the stars.
So that relies on a new team, a merged entity, and it will rely on Victorian Blue, which is an old idea for a young fan base on which the BBL thrives. It's anybody's guess what the second team will represent. If it's the Rajasthan Royals, the IPL seizure will likely prompt resentment throughout this town.
It feels like the riskiest way to achieve the goal of capital influx, but the money is eye-watering. From what I've been told, there's little doubt that the minimum sale price would be the $130 million US, which is $180 million Australian, and it's entirely likely to be higher, much higher than that. The interest out of Sri Lanka has been head-turning and instructive.
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Chapter 2: How did the rivalry between Melbourne's BBL teams impact attendance?
There's clear demand in the US, and Rajasthan has already quietly created a footprint here in Melbourne. To justify what's been done, there will need to be that compelling explanation of how the lump sum will fund cricket in this state for generations to come. We've scratched the surface of that. It will need to be detailed and compelling.
And whatever cricket ends up looking like 10 or 20 years into the future here in Victoria, it will date back to the events of yesterday. The revolution is at the door.