Was that the end of the Big Bash as we know it?

PL watches the Scorchers emphatically account for the Sixers in the final on Sunday

Cricket et Al’s Marrickville bureau

Sunday’s Big Bash final was, if Cricket Australia’s head office has its way, the last of its kind. Who knows what it will look like when private equity arrives with its comb-overs and foreign currency? Will we be celebrating Perth Super Giants’ win over the MI Sixers, or some variation of that?

Todd Greenberg told The Grade Cricketer last week that he didn’t think the new owners would come in and change the names of the franchises as they’ve done with the teams in The Hundred, arguing that the teams in the competition are more established brands, but we will see what unfolds when it unfolds and not before.

We’ll also see who gets to play and who doesn’t.

Babar Azam, who remembered he’d left the kettle on at home, skipped the Sydney Sixers last two games of the BBL season. The Pakistani player will deny he had his nose out of joint over Steve Smith refusing to let him take the first ball of a power play in a previous match, but even the most gullible among us would believe that he’d suddenly become aware of a training camp and had to leave immediately. Babar had scored 202 runs for the Sixers at a strike rate of 103.6, which is apparently the lowest ever for somebody who has made 200 or more in a BBL season.