Queensland join NSW in pushback against BBL privatisation

Queensland has joined New South Wales in rejecting a proposal to sell stakes in the BBL teams to private investors, forcing Cricket Australia (CA) to intensively search for alternatives to inject private capital into the league.

Queensland spoke with the Cricket Australia CEO, Todd Greenberg and chair Mike Baird before issuing a public statement. In their statement, they confirmed that they "will not be moving to the next phase of the sales process" and wanted to work closely with Cricket Australia to make BBL one of the best T20 tournaments in the world.

"The Board and Management of Queensland Cricket have carefully considered the proposal to participate in the privatisation of Big Bash League (BBL) Teams, including the Brisbane Heat," the statement read. "Cricket Australia and Queensland Cricket have maintained a productive and respectful relationship over the past twelve months as we've worked together to determine the best outcome for both parties and the game.

"Today, we have informed Cricket Australia that we will not be moving to the next phase of the sales process. Instead, we wish to continue to find ways to work with Cricket Australia to grow the Big Bash Leagues in Australia and make it one of the best T20 competitions throughout the world, without selling a minority share in the Brisbane Heat.

"Queensland Cricket has completed an exhaustive due diligence process over the past several months and we thank Cricket Australia for the additional time to complete this. Queensland Cricket remains focused on promoting and growing the game across Queensland and throughout Australia to accelerate participation in our sport."

Greenberg spoke to the media on Thursday and explained how each state's position on the privatisation of the BBL is making it difficult for Cricket Australia to find common ground to proceed.

"New South Wales and Queensland are certainly not supportive of private capital," Greenberg was quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo. "New South Wales have an alternative model to self-fund it. Queensland don't have an alternative model, but they don't believe that private capital is something for them. South Australia, I would suggest they're in a hybrid situation where they would like the ability for some states to be able to take the opportunity to bring private capital in, and some states to come in later at their choice. And then we've got three other states, Victoria, WA and Tasmania, who are very strong and very supportive of the opportunity to bring private capital into their state. So if you're sitting in my shoes, with a federated model and six members, that's why it's difficult."

Greenberg also claimed that while both Queensland and NSW have the same stance on the topic of privatisation in the BBL, there is a distinct difference in their objections.

"There's difference between the two nos," he said. "Queensland are not supportive of a growth in player payments. And New South Wales are definitely of the view that we need to invest more into the Big Bash and the players. But they don't think that should be done through private capital. They prefer to find ways of self-funding that, doing that through additional incremental revenue that we would generate. So they are different."