Great to have the BBL back!
Apparently the Heat are favorites to win the title this year, not sure why though.
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Chris Lynn. Take a bow. 94 Runs off 35 balls. 11 sixes. That was an extraordinary effort from the brisbane heat player.
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Limited tickets left for Boxing Day based on what was available to me. I think the atmosphere will suffer though with that stupidly overpriced, overhyped, unnecessary Boundary Social crap taking up Bay 13 (and a couple of others). Does CA really think that transplanting a minature version of a Flemington Marquee to the Cricket is what will spark interest in the game? We had that at the Gabba, basically overhyped because nothing else was being promoted and full of rich C-List celebrities/footballers who could afford the $200 entry fee plus the prices of the drinks in the private bar.
And to suggest theyāre the best seats in the house is delusional, especially when they were only worth $30 for the same test last year (and IMO the best seats are 2nd tier in the Southern Stand behind the bowlers arm at the MCG, bays N18-20, Iām making do with Q52 this year). They would have said the same thing at the Gabba, yet the better deck type setup would have been below the main scoreboard and the best seats that werenāt behind the bowlerās arm would have been directly above where I sat earlier in the year for the Sri Lanka test.
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@onair Question for MSā resident New Zealander: is cricket as big there as it is say here or the UK?
do you mean āas bigā?
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Whoops! Sorry, yes.
Certainly not as big as Australia or the UK (well, England).
It does depend on the era and how good the side is, it hit rock bottom a couple of times in the mid-1990s and then the early 2010s, but when the team is playing well itās big. Itās probably as big right now as itās been (talking since about 2014-now) since the heyday of the 1980s.
Making two Cricket World Cup finals certainly has helped and playing the Melbourne Boxing Day test is huge, Iāve heard suggestions there are around 20 thousand Kiwis coming to watch.
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Iād seen a series of articles on this very point, didnāt realise the impact back in NZ, good for cricket.
Itās cos you didnāt invite us for 30 years lol.
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Sky Sport NZ are still salty! 
When you click view it is just Sir Richard Hadlee talking about the drawn MCG test!
Theyāre still salty about the Underarm game which is nearly 40 years ago (38 to be precise)
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On Christmas Day, cricket bible Wisden named its five cricketers of the 2010s. They are Steve Smith and Ellyse Perry from Australia, Dale Steyn and AB de Villiers from South Africa, and Indiaās Virat Kohli.
Do you agree with the selections?
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I have to admit I canāt think of anyone who deserves to be there more.
I would also like to include Englandās Stuart Broad. Stuart Broad scored 169 his highest score 169, and put on a 332-run partnership with fellow centurion JOnathon Trott. Stuart Broad also took two Hat-tricks against India in 2011 and in Sri Lanka in 2014. Broad is a capable Test all-rounder, who can bat and bowl.
Steve Smith (AUS)āwhat can I say? Despite being suspended over the ball-tampering controversy in South Africa between March 2018 and March 2019, Smith has been exceptional during this decade. He achieved his score of 239 in The 3rd Ashes Test at the WACA, Perth. Smith has made 774 runs in the 2019 Ashes Series in England.
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Iāve wondered about this - itās a big call for NZ to come here for Boxing Day / New Years tests, Iād imagine that NZC have either elected to forgo a decent take by playing tests at home or have CA chipped in?
Itās a shame that commercial realities make NZ and ZA playing here during that period (or us playing at either country) difficult - that said, I could never see us forgoing a local series in that period to play in either country though
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Close BBL finish tonight with the Adelaide Strikers beating the Melbourne Stars by 5 runs in a high scoring affair.