Source :- PERTH NOW NEWS
Pat Cummins has to laugh at the prospect of Melbourne Stars merging with rivals the Renegades before having the chance to win a BBL title.
But despite privatisation dividing opinion across the cricket landscape, Test captain Cummins is in favour of opening the BBL up to outside investors as Cricket Victoria plans.
On Tuesday, CV informed players and staff of plans to effectively merge the two existing Melbourne BBL franchises and sell off their second licence.
The deal is far from complete. For a start, any sale of a BBL team would require approval from Cricket Australia and the Australia Cricketers Association.
But the proposed plan amounts to the biggest step yet towards BBL privatisation, a hot-button issue that has come to a head in recent weeks.
Objections from Cricket NSW and Queensland Cricket meant CA paused plans to privatise the BBL as a whole earlier this off-season.
Instead, CA will consider a phased sale of stakes in BBL clubs that would allow some state associations to retain control of their teams if desired.
But with CV pushing enthusiastically for privatisation throughout, Tuesday night’s news came as no shock to Test captain Cummins.
“There’s no secret that Victoria are pretty keen to sell at least one of their teams,” he said at an Amazon Prime media event.
“It makes sense that they can hold on to one and the other team opens up for investment. I wasn’t overly surprised.”
The merged CV team would likely operate under a new name, possibly the Bushrangers, meaning the demise of the Stars and Renegades brands.
Both teams have underachieved across 15 BBL summers.
The Renegades’ 2018/19 triumph is the only BBL trophy won by the two Melbourne teams, and the Renegades won two summers ago for the state’s sole WBBL triumph.
“(The merger) means the Stars never win a trophy, which, that’s quite funny,” said born-and-bred Sydneysider Cummins.
CNSW previously flagged concerns over rescinding control of the BBL to outside influences, with the impact on the national side a clear concern.
As it stands, Australia’s leading Test players are rarely available for significant BBL game time given their busy schedule over the summer.
But private owners could compel players to prioritise their franchise sides over national duties unless CA is able to weigh in.
“I think you can sort it out. The world has changed, you need to update the contracting structure to keep some control of those issues,” Cummins said.
“Selfishly, I’m the Aussie captain, I want as many players available as possible for the Aussie set-up. There does need to be a few tweaks to make sure the priorities stay the same.”
But Cummins, who has played 80 IPL matches, is a fan of privatisation.
“I’ve played in a few different franchise leagues and I’ve got nothing but good things to say about my different owners and teams I’ve been part of,” he said.
“The amount of resources they put back into developing players and promoting the league and promoting the team, it’s been awesome. If it’s done well, it opens up a lot of opportunities.”
