Cricket Australia's board approved the sale of a 100 per cent stake in the Melbourne Renegades licence on Tuesday, opening the Big Bash to private ownership for the first time.
The decision was announced at the Sydney Cricket Ground by chair Mike Baird and chief executive Todd Greenberg. CA's merchant bank, the Raine Group, began contacting investors this week. CA expects to complete the sale by Christmas, with new owners in place for the 2027-28 BBL and WBBL seasons. It will run the Renegades itself as caretaker through this summer, and both Melbourne clubs play on as normal in BBL 16 and WBBL 12.
CA has set a reserve price and has not disclosed it. It also holds a veto over who buys, and has said it will weigh fit ahead of the highest bid. Under the licence terms it keeps control of international scheduling, player availability, the salary caps and media rights, and must approve any change to the Renegades' name, colours or branding.
The Australian Cricketers Association says none of it can happen yet. Chief executive Paul Marsh said the announcement "doesn't change the work that's required to be done", that a new memorandum of understanding has to be negotiated first and "currently we are a long way apart on a possible new deal". His central line was blunter: "Australian cricket cannot proceed with the sale of any teams without the ACA's agreement."
The dispute is about where the money lands. The current agreement, which runs to 2028, gives players a share of Australian cricket revenue, and the ACA wants an independent determination of whether the proceeds of selling a licence count as revenue under that definition. Marsh said the union wrote to CA last week proposing exactly that process.
Greenberg did not dispute the gap. "Yes, we're a fair way apart in what the negotiation looks like," he said, before adding that "it's ironic that what we're trying to do in this particular model is put more money into the hands of the players". He has sat on the other side of this table recently. Greenberg ran the players' union until December 2024 and started at CA the following year.
Cricket NSW does not accept the process was ready to run. In a statement issued on Wednesday in the name of its board, with no individual named, the association said it was "disappointed by Cricket Australia's decision to proceed with introducing private investment into the Big Bash Leagues without alignment across Australian cricket", and that the decision "risks leaving cricket in NSW and Australia strategically and financially worse off, with direct consequences for our ability to invest in grassroots cricket".
Its objection is procedural as much as financial. "The four pre-conditions for a sale process, unanimously agreed by all state chairs in June, have not been met," the statement said. Those conditions, set at a chairs meeting on 15 June, were agreement on a governance structure, changes to CA's own governance, agreement with the players' union on the mechanics, and a funding agreement between CA and the states. Cricket NSW had proposed an alternative funded by a larger share of wagering revenue. Greenberg rejected it in April: "To back itself on wagering is not a way to fund the game."
Queensland Cricket took a softer line. Chair Kirsten Pike and chief executive Terry Svenson said the self-determination model "will need to be carefully examined", that Queensland had worked to ensure it "does not penalise a State for electing not to sell at this stage", and that it intends "to retain 100 percent ownership of the Brisbane Heat" while staying open to investment later. They thanked CA "for being open to our concerns".
Cricket Victoria, which owns the Renegades, is the willing seller. Director Shaun Richardson said the association was "enthusiastic about moving forward with this process", and that private investment "will unlock value for reinvestment across Victorian cricket, from the grassroots through to the elite game".
The structure behind the disagreement matters. Six of the ten directors on CA's board are appointed one each by Cricket NSW, Queensland Cricket, the South Australian Cricket Association, Cricket Victoria, Cricket Tasmania and Western Australian Cricket. The same states own the eight BBL clubs. That is why CA landed on a self-determination model, under which each state decides whether its own club goes to market, rather than selling the league in one piece.
CA's audited accounts give the financial setting. In the year to 30 June 2025 it reported revenue of $453.7 million and a deficit of $11.3 million, after a $31.9 million deficit the year before. Total liabilities of $100.3 million sat against total assets of $86.6 million, a net liability position of $13.8 million. It distributed $120.9 million to its member states that year and has forecast $198.5 million for 2025-26.
The precedent CA points to is English. The England and Wales Cricket Board sold stakes in all eight teams in The Hundred last year, using the same merchant bank, and says the deals valued the teams at over 975 million pounds and will put more than 500 million pounds into cricket there. Three of the eight were renamed by their new owners within months.
Renegades captain Sophie Molineux, asked about that on Tuesday, said a rebrand "would feel different", but that private money "can unlock some new areas that we can go into in the Women's Big Bash". Pat Cummins said privatisation "if done well, can be a great thing for the sport", and that the January schedule had been his own barrier to playing. Greenberg said Test cricket keeps priority for centrally contracted players, "and that is written in the rules".
Not everyone reading the same accounts agrees on the remedy. John Mangan, an emeritus professor at the University of Queensland's Australian Institute for Business and Economics, argued in May that selling equity would favour the fully privatised clubs over the rest and put at risk the fan goodwill the league runs on. He proposed borrowing instead, pointing to Rugby Australia's $80 million credit facility as a way to raise money without giving up control.
The Raine Group starts talking to buyers this week. Whether it can sell anything depends on a negotiation with the players that both sides say is nowhere near finished.
