The Big Bash League explained
Eight city teams, 20 overs a side and a summer-holiday window: a newcomer's guide to how Australia's T20 league is run.
The Big Bash League is Australia's men's Twenty20 cricket competition, played by eight city-based teams over the summer holidays. Cricket Australia runs it, and the first season was played in 2011-12. Fifteen seasons in, it is a fixture of the Australian summer, sitting in the same weeks as the Test series.
If you have watched a Test match and found it slow, the BBL is the other end of the game. Each side bats once for a maximum of 20 overs, the team with more runs wins, and a result comes in a single night.
The eight teams
The league has had the same eight teams since it started. Six cities are represented, with Melbourne and Sydney each home to two clubs.
| Team | City | Home ground |
|---|---|---|
| Adelaide Strikers | Adelaide, South Australia | Adelaide Oval |
| Brisbane Heat | Brisbane, Queensland | The Gabba |
| Hobart Hurricanes | Hobart, Tasmania | Bellerive Oval |
| Melbourne Renegades | Melbourne, Victoria | Melbourne Cricket Ground |
| Melbourne Stars | Melbourne, Victoria | Melbourne Cricket Ground |
| Perth Scorchers | Perth, Western Australia | Perth Stadium |
| Sydney Sixers | Sydney, New South Wales | Sydney Cricket Ground |
| Sydney Thunder | Sydney, New South Wales | Sydney Showground Stadium |
The teams are franchises, which means they are new clubs created for the competition. They are separate from the six state teams that play the longer formats, such as the Sheffield Shield, although many state players also turn out for a BBL side.
When the season is played
The BBL runs from mid December to late January, which puts it right across the school holidays and alongside the Test summer. The 2025-26 season, the fifteenth, started on 14 December 2025 and finished with the final on 25 January 2026. The league's window is often described as December to February, and the final date shifts a little from year to year, but recent editions have wrapped up in late January.
How a match works
A BBL match follows the standard Twenty20 rules with a few local additions. Each team faces up to 20 overs, or 120 legal balls, and a full match is completed in an afternoon or evening. When rain shortens a game, the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern method sets a revised target for the team batting second.
The Power Surge and other rule changes
The BBL has tried several rule changes that other T20 leagues do not use. Three arrived together in 2020-21.
The Power Surge is a two-over period that works as a second powerplay. During it, the fielding side has to keep a set number of fielders inside the inner circle, which gives batters more room to score. It survived when the league trimmed its experimental rules for 2022-23.
The Bash Boost was a bonus point on offer during the second innings, awarded by comparing the chasing side's progress with a target worked out by Duckworth-Lewis-Stern. It was dropped for 2022-23, as was a player substitution rule brought in alongside it.
Two other local quirks are worth knowing. Since 2018-19, captains have flipped a bat instead of tossing a coin to decide who bats first. In 2022-23 the league brought in the Decision Review System, with one review allowed per innings.
The regular season
Since 2023-24 each team has played ten regular-season matches, making 40 games in total. Teams get points for wins, and the table decides who reaches the finals. Add the four finals and a season has 44 matches.
The finals format
Four teams make the finals, which use a format with a second chance for the top two.
- The Qualifier: first plays second. The winner goes straight to the final.
- The Knockout: third plays fourth. The loser is out.
- The Challenger: the loser of the Qualifier plays the winner of the Knockout for the other place in the final.
- The Final: the Qualifier winner plays the Challenger winner.
Finishing in the top two matters for this reason. A top-two side can lose its first final and still win the title, while third and fourth must win three straight matches.
A short history
Before the BBL, Australia's domestic T20 competition was played between the six state teams. In July 2011 Cricket Australia announced a franchise competition to replace it, and the first season ran in 2011-12. The Sydney Sixers won that first title.
The Perth Scorchers have been the most successful team, with six titles: 2013-14, 2014-15, 2016-17, 2021-22, 2022-23 and 2025-26. The most recent came when they beat the Sydney Sixers by six wickets in the 2025-26 final at Perth Stadium.
The Sixers have three titles and the Brisbane Heat two. The Adelaide Strikers, Hobart Hurricanes, Melbourne Renegades and Sydney Thunder have won one each. As of the end of the 2025-26 season, the Melbourne Stars are the only team without a BBL title.
The Women's Big Bash League
The Women's Big Bash League, or WBBL, started in 2015-16 and uses the same eight teams as the men's league. For its first few seasons it ran at the same time as the BBL. Since 2019-20 it has had its own window, played from October into early or mid December, so it finishes before the men's competition gets going.
Title wins have been spread around. The Sydney Sixers, Adelaide Strikers, Brisbane Heat and Sydney Thunder have two each, and the Hobart Hurricanes won the 2025-26 final against the Perth Scorchers.
Following the BBL as a newcomer
A good way in is to pick the team closest to you and watch a few evening games. Melbourne and Sydney fans get a derby, with the Stars against the Renegades and the Sixers against the Thunder. Because the season is short, a team that starts slowly can run out of matches, so the table moves quickly in January.
For where the BBL sits in the wider year, see our Australian sports calendar.
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