Cricket Australia has spoken with BBL franchises about a plan to open this season's BBL with a showdown in India.
Brisbane Heat have put their hand up to be one of the first teams to play a BBL game overseas and open this summer's tournament in India.
Cricket Australia is understood to have received positive news in the past 24 hours in their quest to start the 2026-27 season in India. The move would be designed to help increase interest in the Indian market, and also comes at a time whenThe challenge now is to establish which teams will go because only two sides can be part of the action.
Brisbane Heat chief executive Terry Svenson said the Chennai move was a good initiative by Cricket Australia that was backed by Queensland Cricket.
"We've had the opportunity to discuss this with CA and are supportive of the initiative," Svenson said. "The Brisbane Heat have been one of the competition's best performing teams off the field with a strong international following through social media, so we look forward to further discussions with CA." It has been reported Cricket Australia initially proposed internally they would explore taking the first game of the Big Bash overseas this summer.
In the past 24 hours it's understood the Chennai governing body has approved it in principle and are waiting for the BCCI to sign off on it. Several of the BBL franchises have indicated they would prefer to be the away team in Chennai rather than giving up a home game. The Sydney Thunder is one club with obvious links to Chennai through Ravichandran Ashwin.
Ashwin had initially signed for the Thunder last year as the first Indian player in the BBL, before injury ruled him out. But there are also Pakistan players involved in the BBL and history shows getting them into India is a fraught exercise. Most BBL teams have had Pakistani players on their roster, with the overseas player draft to be held later this year.
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