The top two clubs at the end of the Big Bash's regular season will retain their double-chance under a new KFC BBL finals structure confirmed today by the league.
Cricket Australia (CA) has unveiled the 44-game schedule for BBL|13, which includes 40 home-and-away matches and a new-look four-game finals series featuring the top four clubs.
Brisbane Heat – last summer's runners-up – will launch the tournament's 13th edition when they host the Melbourne Stars at the Gabba on December 7 in the prime-time slot of 6.15 pm local time.
It will be the third consecutive summer the Stars have featured in the opening game of the BBL season having lost a final-ball thriller when English wicketkeeper Joe Clarke let through four byes against Sydney Thunder at Manuka Oval last year, which was after they were rolled for 61 by Sydney Sixers a year earlier.
All clubs bar Adelaide Strikers, Hobart Hurricanes and the Thunder will play two games in the first week before the tournament goes on a five-day hiatus from December 14-18, where play in the first Test in Perth between Australia and Pakistan would have cut into the BBL's prime-time window on the nation's east coast.
It's one of several scheduling challenges faced by the league this upcoming summer, with men's international fixtures until mid-February meaning the December 7 start date is the second earliest in BBL history and the January 24 final a midweek finish for just the second time.
But the reduced season for BBL|13 (with clubs playing 10 home-and-away matches instead of 14), under changes in the season structure implemented 12 months in advance of a new seven-year broadcast deal between CA and the Foxtel Group and Seven West Media, has taken some of the heat off the league's scheduling headaches.
There are eight fewer double-headers this season (five compared to 13 in BBL|12), and there will be no games on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day as the league prioritises its biggest games in its best prime-time slots.
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