Fair enough, but the GC is the biggest non-capital city. Not to mention Sydney (4.7 mil) and Melbourne (4.4 mil) have two teams but SE Queensland (2.7 mil) has only one. If they’re looking to expand the BBL, a team somewhere in the SEQ corridor is the next biggest logical location by market potential.
Only other region I could see a new team built for would be northern NSW (New England Patriots?).
I don’t think they would be allowed to use that name.
New England refers to Armidale - Tenterfield - Inverell (Northern Tablelands) which is the least populated area of Nth NSW. Hunter Hornets maybe? (that’s what the Knights were going to be called I think?).
There isn’t really a suitable ground. Hunter Stadium and Central Coast Stadiums are both rectangular (designed for the rugby and soccer codes) and No. 1 Sportsground in Newcastle only holds about 7,000, and not much of that is seated. It is a fair way behind Bellerive or Manuka Ovals in terms of facilities.
Haha, I do! I would love for it happen but under virtually any scenario it would mean the NZ domestic competition halts for a month which is difficult. NZ also obviously has its international programme at the same time. I think the best option is to enter a ‘best of the rest’ XI featuring the top players beneath International level but that again takes those players out of domestic responsibilities back home.
I don’t really understand how Matthew Wade keeps getting picked. His form with the bat, and sometimes even behind the stumps, is questionable at the moment.
I know. Is there any younger keepers they could just give a go. Similar to what they have done with Renshaw and Handscombe who seem to have taken the opportunity?
What a win by Australia in the Boxing Day test today! They were still batting this morning in the first innings before declaring at 8/624. Then superb bowling by the Aussies and poor batting by Pakistan meant the match was over in the final hour of the final session.
Australia has made two changes to the test squad for next week’s Sydney test. Spinners Agar and O’Keefe come in for Sayers and Maddinson.
May have been West Indies 2003 where we played McGrath, Lee, Bichel, MacGill and Hogg batting Gilchrist at 6. They may consider Agar to bat 6 or 7 and retain the 3 quicks.
Looks like Hilton Cartwright who I’m pretty sure hardly anyone knew of before the call-up into the test side will debut in Sydney. I’d say O’Keefe will replace Bird and Cartwright will replace poor Maddinson.
Looks like a massive crowd (around 85k) have rocked up to the MCG tonight for the BBL derby. And you compare that to the last 4 days of the test match just past!