The fight over the future of the Big Bash League just got messier. Cricket Victoria has backed down from sending its chief executive Nick Cummins to Monday's crucial chairs' meeting, after at least one other state threatened to boycott the gathering entirely.
Cummins confirmed to this masthead on Thursday night that he wouldn't attend the meeting in Melbourne, where Australian cricket's leaders are meant to decide the fate of the BBL privatisation project. Instead, Cricket Victoria will send another director to substitute for chairman Ross Hepburn, who's overseas.
The move comes after serious pushback from other states. Two sources with knowledge of confidential discussions said there was major angst about Cummins attending — partly because he's not a board member, but also because of his central role in the shock plan to merge the Melbourne Stars and Renegades, which blindsided the other states last week.
One state chair was threatening not to fly to Melbourne at all if Cummins showed up. Another state wrote to Cricket Australia on Thursday to insist that Victoria be represented by a board member, not the CEO.
Western Australia also won't have its chair at the table. Instead, former federal attorney-general Christian Porter — who joined the WA board in 2024 — will attend.
The meeting, chaired by CA boss Mike Baird, is supposed to tackle Cricket Australia's revised "self-determination model" for selling stakes in BBL clubs. Under this plan, each state gets to choose whether to sell now, later, or never. It was drafted after CA's original plan — to force all teams to sell at least a minority stake — collapsed.
New South Wales, Queensland and South Australia are the three states most opposed to selling, though South Australia's president Will Rayner was the one who first suggested self-determination as a compromise.
Several states expressed doubt that a final deal could be reached by Monday, but called the meeting an important step for direct chair-to-chair talks.
Victoria's merger of the Stars and Renegades threw a spanner in the works. By combining the two Melbourne clubs, Victoria creates a "clean" second licence that could be sold 100 per cent to a private investor. But the final decision on whether to kill off the Stars and Renegades brands rests with the CA board — which could still veto the sale.
The Australian Cricketers' Association is also unhappy. CEO Paul Marsh pointed out that no sale can happen without players agreeing to revised pay and contract terms.
Cummins was already grilled by other state CEOs at a regular meeting in Melbourne on Wednesday, which ran alongside a CA conference on the future of the game.
CA chief executive Todd Greenberg used that conference to make his case. "The potential is vast. But we have to have an eye on the long-term future," he said. "To maintain Australia's position at the top and keep growing the game's popularity, we need to ensure we have the funds to continue to invest in the things that have created success."
Greenberg added: "We see private investment in the Big Bash — with the appropriate guardrails — as comfortably the best and most effective way of protecting the future of the game from the grassroots to our elite programs."
For now, the BBL's future remains up in the air. Monday's meeting will show whether the states can find common ground — or if the divisions run too deep.