{"id":726765,"date":"2026-06-10T05:56:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T05:56:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/726765\/"},"modified":"2026-06-10T05:56:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T05:56:10","slug":"cricket-news-2026-ian-healy-slams-big-bash-merger-of-melbourne-stars-and-renegades","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/726765\/","title":{"rendered":"Cricket News 2026: Ian Healy slams Big Bash merger of Melbourne Stars and Renegades"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former Australian<\/a> wicket keeper Ian Healy<\/a> has slammed Cricket<\/a> Victoria\u2019s decision to merge the Melbourne Stars<\/a> and Renegades<\/a>, with the hopes of selling the latter off to a private buyer<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The decision caused enormous backlash, with other states completely unaware the merging of the Big Bash<\/a> teams was coming. <\/p>\n

\"Ian<\/p>\n

Ian Healy speaks in Queensland.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

Cricket New South Wales and Queensland both remain firmly against selling off BBL licences, likely to India, while Victoria, Western Australia and Tasmania are in favour. South Australia is reportedly more on the fence. <\/p>\n

However, to the surprise of the others, Victoria went ahead and dissolved the Stars and the Renegades, merging them into one club, likely to be named the \u2018Melbourne Rangers\u2019 or \u2018Magic\u2019.<\/p>\n

The other licence will be sold for what they hope will be a $100m sum.<\/p>\n

Healy, who previously served as the chairman of the Brisbane Heat<\/a>, cannot believe Victoria\u2019s jumping of the gun. <\/p>\n

\u201cYes, cricket\u2019s privatisation is a shemozzle at the moment,\u201d Healy told SEN in Queensland.<\/p>\n

\u201cThree states are in, and three states are still out after several attempts of proposing offers. The current offer doesn\u2019t suit one state at all.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t provide enough security for the future of cricket in the other states, and one has a rushed concept or a less rushed concept that hasn\u2019t even been released yet.<\/p>\n

\u201cVictoria have stirred everyone up, acting prematurely and surely contravening their licence agreement.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no chance of what Victoria have proposed happening because they haven\u2019t had any sort of approval, and that contravention of their shareholders\u2019 agreement and licence agreements just cannot happen.<\/p>\n

\u201cAkin to the Brisbane Broncos changing its name, colours and venue without gaining any sort of approval, it just doesn\u2019t happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Healy believes Victoria\u2019s merging of the Renegades and Stars makes a mockery of all those who built both teams into what they are now across the last 15 years.<\/p>\n

\"Aaron<\/p>\n

Aaron Finch and Glenn Maxwell in 2019.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

\u201cShane Warne, Glenn Maxwell, Meg Lanning, Chris Gayle, Aaron Finch and plenty more have had their deeds flushed away for a brand new club if the Renegades and Stars are disbanded,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cYoung cricketers today and Victorian cricketers have no knowledge of a world without the Big Bash, and I doubt they\u2019re going to flock to a brand new, clean-skin franchise, let alone find someone willing to pay big overs for it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a league with a healthy broadcast deal, and they\u2019ve got a per-game eyeball count as good as any sport. Yet, they want to change and merge teams. It seems greedy and desperate to me without asking permission.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Renegades\u2019 licence is expected to be sold to an Indian Premier League owner and will undergo a total rebrand.<\/p>\n

However, if that isn\u2019t secured before the start of this coming BBL season, both the Stars and Renegades might continue on for one last season, despite knowing their fate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Australian wicket keeper Ian Healy has slammed Cricket Victoria\u2019s decision to merge the Melbourne Stars and Renegades,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":726766,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,740,85],"class_list":["post-726765","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\/726765","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=726765"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/726765\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/726766"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=726765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=726765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=726765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}