Big Bash League
Official BBL Logo
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| Countries |
 Australia
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|---|---|
| Administrator | Cricket Australia |
| Format | Twenty20 |
| First tournament | 2011–12 |
| Last tournament | 2016–17 |
| Tournament format | Round-robin and knockout finals |
| Number of teams | 8 |
| Current champion | Perth Scorchers (3rd title) |
| Most successful |
Perth Scorchers (3 titles) |
| Most runs | Michael Klinger (1,608) |
| Most wickets | Ben Laughlin (69) |
| TV | Network Ten |
| Website | bigbash.com.au |
 2016–17
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The Big Bash League (BBL, also known as the KFC Big Bash League for sponsorship reasons) is an Australian professional Twenty20 cricket league, which was established in 2011 by Cricket Australia. The Big Bash League replaced the previous competition, the KFC Twenty20 Big Bash, and features eight city-based franchises instead of the six state teams which had participated previously. The competition has been sponsored by fast food chicken outlet KFC since its inception.
BBL matches are played in Australia during the summer in the months of December and January. It is now placed sixth in the list of most attended sports leagues in the world with respect to average crowd per match (2015–16 season).
Out of the eight teams in the tournament, four have won the title at least once. The Perth Scorchers are the most successful team in the league's short history, winning the title three times including consecutively for two years and have reached the final of the tournament in five of the six seasons. The other three teams which have won the title are Sydney Sixers, Brisbane Heat and Sydney Thunder. The current champions are the Perth Scorchers.
Earlier, the top two teams in the tournament used to qualify for the Champions League Twenty20 tournament. It was an annual international Twenty20 competition played between the top domestic teams from various nations. However, the CLT20 has now become defunct from 2015 onwards.
A design contest was held in 2011 to determine the design of the Big Bash League trophy. The competition was restricted to Australian designers, with the final design, chosen by the public from a field of three, revealed on 13 December 2011.
It had been proposed that the tournament would undergo expansion into more regional areas not supported by international cricket. The expansion was planned to be implemented in 2012. The proposed teams included: Newcastle, Canberra, Geelong, and Gold Coast. A New Zealand-based team was also mentioned as a possibility which would be based at Auckland or Christchurch. Cricket expert Mark Waugh commented on Fox Sports that an expansion could dilute the player pool resulting in a sub-standard league. The expansion proposal was eventually dumped, mainly because the proposed cities lacked the proper cricket hosting facilities.
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