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My first Big Bash game, ten years on

December 30 2011: My first attendance at a BBL game, my only game in the Big Bash League’s first season, and my first to a T20 match in almost six years. Sydney Thunder versus Melbourne Renegades at ANZ Stadium (as Stadium Australia was known at that period). It was scheduled for the evening of what would have been the fifth day of the Boxing Day Australia versus India Test, which thankfully ended in four.

There was never any doubt in my mind about which BBL team I would seek to support. The Sydney Sixers’ glitzy narcissistic image was a turnoff from the start, so despite the blandness of the name and the logo, Sydney Thunder it was.

Despite my pre-match protestations that I wouldn’t be tweeting from the game… I did.

Stay till end for the Fox Sports News report on the game.

(In case this page loads slowly because of all the embedded tweets, they can all be read on one Twitter page within this search range.)

My first comment about pyrotechnics at BBL games, a proud tradition that I have expanded ten years later into the hashtag #saynotopyro
Fidel Edwards finished with 4-0-30-1, the most expensive of the Thunder bowlers.
Abdul Razzaq joined Shahid Afridi at the crease for the Melbourne Renegades.
Ronald (Andrew) McDonald would later join the Sydney Thunder to become part of their BBL05 championship squad.

Sydney Morning Herald match report: https://www.smh.com.au/sport/cricket/afridi-sparks-surprise-win-for-renegades-20111230-1pfxb.html

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Sydney Thunder v Sydney Sixers 19 Dec 2017

Big Bash League 2017-18 #BBL07:
Spotless Stadium, Sydney Olympic Park, 19 December 2017
Sydney Sixers 9/149 (20), Sydney Thunder 5/150 (20)
Sydney Thunder won with 0 balls to spare.

Scorecard

 

 

Video highlights from cricket.com.au

 

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The Big Bash, And Juggling Cricket’s Three Formats

What started as a midsummer diversion in the English cricket season of 2003 became a multi-million dollar enterprise in India in 2008, and now almost every Test playing nation has its own professional Twenty20 competition, squeezed into their domestic program.

The 2011-12 season saw the transformation of Australia’s state-based “Big Bash” competition into the franchise-based Big Bash League. Continue reading “The Big Bash, And Juggling Cricket’s Three Formats”