Last Updated on 4 years ago by Charbel Coorey
Cricket News: Schedule and dates for BBL 12: All the matches and dates for the BBL 2022/23 season | When will BBL 2022/23 start?
The upcoming 12th season of the Big Bash League (BBL) will commence from 13th December, 2022. The season finale will take place on 4th February, 2023 with a total of 56 games to be played in the group stages.
Sydney Thunder and Melbourne Stars will battle it out in the opening match of the campaign at Manuka Oval.
Defending champions Perth Scorchers will kick-off their season on 17th December by facing off against Sydney Sixers at Optus Stadium.
Eight teams; Adelaide Strikers, Hobart Hurricanes, Melbourne Stars, Melbourne Renegades, Brisbane Heat, Sydney Sixers, Sydney Thunder and Perth Scorchers will participate in this season of the BBL.
BBL 12 schedule and dates
The group stage fixtures will run from 13th December-25th January. There will only be a single off day, i.e., on 25th December due to Christmas, during this time period. The eliminator, qualifier and knockout games are scheduled to be held on 27th January, 28th January and 29th January respectively.
Thereafter, the Challenger will take place on 2nd February. The summit clash is slated to be played on 4th February. The venues for the playoff encounters have not been finalised yet.
“We’ve been clear since the end of last season given the disruption of two years that rebounding really strongly this season is such a critical thing for us to achieve. This season is one of if not the most important seasons we’ve had in recent years,” BBL general manager Alistair Dobson was quoted in a report by the ESPN Cricinfo.
Accordingly, the BBL has returned back to its traditional mid-December start date along with a seven-game home schedule for each of the sides after two Covid-affected seasons.
The coming campaign also received a boost through Cricket South Africa’s (CSA) withdrawal from their scheduled three-match ODI series in January. Most of Australia’s top stars will now be free from international assignments after the New Year’s Test in Sydney from 4th January-8th January.
Players like Aaron Finch, Glenn Maxwell, Adam Zampa, Marcus Stoinis, Mitchell Marsh, Alex Carey and Usman Khawaja amongst others are likely to feature for their respective clubs at some or the other point of the season.
“Every player that represents Australia is someone the BBL would love to have playing and given the majority of those centrally contracted players are already part of the BBL, it’s such an exciting part of the competition,” Dobson opened up on this issue, as reported by cricket.com.au.
He added, “Now that we have clarity on the BBL season and international schedule, it gives us and our clubs the opportunity to have another conversation with those players around whether they’re able to participate and whether they’ve got the capacity given such a hectic (international) schedule they’ve got for the next 12 to 18 months.”
Three new venues including the Lavington Sports Ground in Albury, the North Sydney Oval and the Cazalys Stadium in Cairns will be a part of the 17 stadiums that will host the BBL games this season. 45 games will be broadcasted live by Seven whereas there will be complete coverage by Foxtel and Kayo for all the 61 matches.
