{"id":679804,"date":"2026-05-19T01:51:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T01:51:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/679804\/"},"modified":"2026-05-19T01:51:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T01:51:10","slug":"cricket-news-2026-big-bash-league-season-opener-reportedly-set-to-take-place-in-chennai-india","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/679804\/","title":{"rendered":"Cricket News 2026: Big Bash League season opener reportedly set to take place in Chennai, India"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Big Bash League<\/a> will reportedly open next season in India<\/a>, starting in the second week of December.<\/p>\n

While Cricket Australia<\/a> has openly discussed the possibility this year, the Indian Express is reporting that the BCCI has now ticked it off, despite being initially hesitant.<\/p>\n

The report claims that a delegation of five people from CA flew to India to help get the deal over the line. <\/p>\n

READ MORE: Gould casts major doubt over Daley’s NSW selections<\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE: Guardiola poised to drop bombshell on Manchester City<\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE: Gus fires back at ‘moronic’ leaked photo amid Dogs slide<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Steve Smith of the Sixers talks with Usman Khawaja of the Heat.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

The match will take place in Chennai’s M.A Chidambaram Stadium, which has a capacity of 38,000 and is the home of the Super Kings in the Indian Premier League.<\/p>\n

The teams that will take part are yet to be determined, but the report states only the season opener will take place in India.<\/p>\n

The players that take part in the game may receive a boost to their chances of being selected in the following Indian Premier League auction, given the exposure. <\/p>\n

Things have not always been smooth between CA and the BCCI when it comes to T20 cricket, with the latter restricting Indian players from appearing in the BBL.<\/p>\n

That was until veteran spinner Ravi Ashwin joined the Sydney Thunder last season. He would have been the first Indian to play in the league, if not for a season-ending injury.<\/p>\n

\"General<\/p>\n

General view inside M.A Chidambaram Stadium during the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup in 2026.\u00a0ICC via Getty Images<\/p>\n

The timing of the game brings with it significant risk, given December is Chennai’s monsoon season. <\/p>\n

The reported move to open the BBL season in India comes a day after CA boss Todd Greenberg adamantly declared they would not sell the soul of the league to India<\/a>.<\/p>\n

That is despite the IPL franchises looming as the most likely buyers of the Big Bash teams, should the states agree to privatisation. <\/p>\n

At this stage, Queensland and New South Wales both oppose the move, while Victoria, South Australia (tentatively), Tasmania and Western Australia are in favour.<\/p>\n

Selling a 49 per cent ownership stake in the teams could net Cricket Australia hundreds of millions of dollars at a time where they’re expected to post yet another operating loss this financial year. <\/p>\n

Wide World of Sports has contacted Cricket Australia for comment. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Big Bash League will reportedly open next season in India, starting in the second week of December.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":679805,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,740,85],"class_list":["post-679804","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cricket","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/679804","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=679804"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/679804\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/679805"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=679804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=679804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=679804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}