In a historic move, Chennai will host Australia’s Big Bash League (BBL) men’s T20 game on December 12 (Saturday) in Chennai.
This will be the first time that BBL will be played outside Australia. Also, for the first time, India is hosting another country’s domestic T20 league game.
The big announcement was made on Friday (July 10) by Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, accompanied by PM Narendra Modi, at the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG).
Will Australia host an IPL game?
The hosting of the BBL 2026-27 opening match in India is seen by Cricket Australia (CA) as groundwork to get Indian Premier League (IPL) games to Australia in the future.
Defending champions Perth Scorchers will face Melbourne Renegades at Chennai’s MA Chidambaram Stadium at 2:40 PM IST (8:10 PM Australia Time). The move is part of the India-Australia Roadmap for Sports Collaboration.
“Australia will bring the Big Bash League to India for the first time. The season opener for this summer’s Big Bash between the Melbourne Renegades and the Perth Scorchers will be played in Chennai on Saturday, 12 December. It will kick off a week-long ‘G’day Namaste’ Festival of Australian Sport, Culture and Business Engagement,” Albanese said.
“I am happy that a Big Bash League match will be organised in India, in Chennai. Any sporting league that conducts games in India is guaranteed to reach a large base and fetch big viewership,” Prime Minister Modi said.
What BBL EGM said
Countries host their domestic T20 leagues at home unless forced to move out due to unavoidable circumstances. IPL has been hosted outside India, in South Africa and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) due to general elections in the country and also during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Alistair Dobson, executive general manager of Big Bash Leagues, said they are open to hosting IPL in Australia and added that there is huge interest in the country.
“There’s certainly been interest from time to time at state government level and at venue level, and with some of our clubs to imagine what that could look like bringing an IPL game out here,” Dobson said.
“The IPL’s next level, isn’t it, – and it would bring an amazing connection. We’ve seen already the hype around an NFL game in Melbourne. It’s not necessarily connected to this event or this initiative, but the opportunity to have those discussions when the time’s right, I’m sure we’d be open to that, as would everyone across Australian cricket, because the IPL’s got a huge following already in Australia,” he added.
Dobson admitted there were challenges in taking the BBL opening contest to India. “There’s a lot of work to be done. As you can imagine, taking any sporting event overseas is a challenge. Taking a cricket game is complex, but we’re going into a market that we know loves the game and puts on big cricket events every day of the week.”