| 2018–19 Big Bash League | |
| Fromdate: | 19 December 2018 |
| Todate: | 17 February 2019 |
| Administrator: | Cricket Australia |
| Cricket Format: | Twenty20 |
| Tournament Format: | Double round robin and knockout |
| Champions: | Melbourne Renegades |
| Count: | 1 |
| Participants: | 8 |
| Matches: | 59 |
| Player Of The Series: | D'Arcy Short (Hobart Hurricanes) |
| Most Runs: | D'Arcy Short (Hobart Hurricanes) (637)[1] |
| Most Wickets: | Kane Richardson (Melbourne Renegades) (24)[2] |
| Previous Year: | 2017–18 |
| Previous Tournament: | 2017–18 Big Bash League season |
| Next Year: | 2019–20 |
| Next Tournament: | 2019-20 Big Bash League season |
| Website: | bigbash.com.au |
The 2018–19 Big Bash League season or BBL|08 was the eighth season of the KFC Big Bash League, the professional men's Twenty20 domestic cricket competition in Australia. The tournament started on 19 December 2018.[3] [4] Adelaide Strikers were the defending champions. The competition was extended to a full home and away season for the first time, with each team to play each other twice at both a home venue and away venue. This consists of 56 regular season matches, two semi-final fixtures and the final. For this season of the tournament, the toss was replaced by a bat flip, with "roofs and flats" used instead of heads or tails.[5] [6]
The season saw Cameron Bancroft's return to professional cricket, following his involvement in the ball-tampering scandal in March 2018.[7]
The title was won by Melbourne Renegades, who defeated Melbourne Stars at the Marvel Stadium.
| Adelaide Strikers | Adelaide Oval Traeger Park | 53,583 10,000 | Travis Head | Jason Gillespie | |
| Brisbane Heat | The Gabba Metricon Stadium | 42,000 25,000 | Chris Lynn | Daniel Vettori | |
| Hobart Hurricanes | Blundstone Arena UTAS Stadium | 20,000 21,000 | Matthew Wade | Adam Griffith | |
| Melbourne Renegades | Marvel Stadium GMHBA Stadium | 48,003 34,000 | Aaron Finch | Andrew McDonald | |
| Melbourne Stars | Melbourne Cricket Ground Metricon Stadium Ted Summerton Reserve | 100,024 25,000 7,500 | Glenn Maxwell | Stephen Fleming | |
| Perth Scorchers | Optus Stadium | 60,000 | Mitchell Marsh | Adam Voges | |
| Sydney Sixers | Sydney Cricket Ground | 48,000 | Moises Henriques | Greg Shipperd | |
| Sydney Thunder | Spotless Stadium Manuka Oval | 22,000 12,000 | Shane Watson | Shane Bond |
| Adelaide | Alice Springs | Brisbane | Canberra | Geelong | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Adelaide Oval | Traeger Park | The Gabba | Manuka Oval | GMHBA Stadium | |
| Capacity: 53,583 | Capacity: 7,200 | Capacity: 42,000 | Capacity: 12,000 | Capacity: 34,000 | |
| Matches: 7 | Matches: 1 | Matches: 5 | Matches: 2 | Matches: 2 | |
| Hobart | Gold Coast | ||||
| Blundstone Arena | Metricon Stadium | ||||
| Capacity: 20,000 | Capacity: 25,000 | ||||
| Matches: 5 + 1 final | Matches: 3 | ||||
| Perth | Launceston | ||||
| Optus Stadium | University of Tasmania Stadium | ||||
| Capacity: 60,000 | Capacity: 21,000 | ||||
| Matches: 7 | Matches: 2 | ||||
| Moe | Melbourne | Sydney | |||
| Ted Summerton Reserve | Marvel Stadium | Melbourne Cricket Ground | Spotless Stadium | Sydney Cricket Ground | |
| Capacity: 7,500 | Capacity: 48,003 | Capacity: 100,024 | Capacity: 22,000 | Capacity: 48,000 | |
| Matches: 1 | Matches: 5 + 2 final | Matches: 5 | Matches: 5 | Matches: 7 | |
----
----
----
----
----
----
----
----
----
----
----
----
----
----
----
----
----
----
----
----
----
----
----
----
----
----
----
----
----
----
----
----
----
----
----
----
----
----
----
----
----
----
----
----
----
----
----
----
----
----
----
----
----
----
----
----
----
--------
--------
--------
| Player | Team | Runs | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| D'Arcy Short | Hobart Hurricanes | 15 | 15 | 3 | 637 | 67.62 | 96 | 0 | 6 | |
| Matthew Wade | Hobart Hurricanes | 15 | 15 | 1 | 592 | 42.28 | 88 | 0 | 6 | |
| Marcus Stoinis | Melbourne Stars | 13 | 13 | 3 | 533 | 53.30 | 81 | 0 | 4 | |
| Callum Ferguson | Sydney Thunder | 14 | 14 | 1 | 442 | 34.00 | 113 | 1 | 1 | |
| Daniel Hughes | Sydney Sixers | 15 | 15 | 2 | 399 | 30.69 | 62 | 0 | 4 |
| Player | Team | Overs | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kane Richardson | Melbourne Renegades | 14 | 14 | 54.5 | 24 | 17.70 | 13.70 | 7.75 | 3/22 | 4 | 0 | |
| James Faulkner | Hobart Hurricanes | 11 | 11 | 40.0 | 18 | 17.22 | 13.33 | 7.75 | 3/25 | 3 | 0 | |
| Sean Abbott | Sydney Sixers | 12 | 12 | 43.1 | 18 | 19.44 | 14.38 | 8.10 | 3/18 | 2 | 0 | |
| Steve O'Keefe | Sydney Sixers | 12 | 12 | 45.0 | 17 | 18.41 | 15.88 | 6.95 | 3/19 | 1 | 0 | |
| Tom Curran | Sydney Sixers | 12 | 12 | 43.5 | 16 | 20.37 | 16.43 | 7.43 | 3/16 | 4 | 0 |
| Adelaide Strikers | 14 | 7 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brisbane Heat | 14 | 7 | |||||
| Hobart Hurricanes | 15 | 8 | |||||
| Melbourne Renegades | 16 | 9 | |||||
| Melbourne Stars | 16 | 7 | |||||
| Perth Scorchers | 14 | 7 | |||||
| Sydney Sixers | 15 | 7 | |||||
| Sydney Thunder | 14 | 7 |
This was the first BBL season featuring the new cricket broadcasting rights deal made between Cricket Australia, Fox Sports Australia and Seven Network. Fox Sports broadcast all 59 matches from the BBL season on their new Fox Cricket channel, with 16 of those broadcast exclusively. Channel Seven will be broadcasting 43 matches, including all finals fixtures. For these 43 matches Channel Seven were the “Host Broadcaster” and did the toss and player of the match.[8]
| Match No | Teams | Average TV Ratings | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| National (Channel Seven) | 5 Metro Cities (Channel Seven) | National (Fox Cricket) | National Total (Seven + Fox) | ||||||
| Session 1 | Session 2 | Session 1 | Session 2 | Session 1 | Session 2 | Session 1 | Session 2 | ||
| 1 | Brisbane Heat vs Adelaide Strikers[9] [10] | 879,000 | 920,000 | 594,000 | 614,000 | 267,000 | 286,000 | 1,146,000 | 1,206,000 |
| 2 | Melbourne Renegades vs Perth Scorchers[11] [12] | 808,000 | 839,000 | 528,000 | 555,000 | 220,000 | 270,000 | 1,028,000 | 1,109,000 |
| 3 | Sydney Thunder vs Melbourne Stars[13] [14] | 777,000 | 623,000 | 529,000 | 422,000 | 197,000 | 168,000 | 974,000 | 791,000 |
| 4 | Sydney Sixers vs Perth Scorchers[15] | - | - | - | - | 188,000 | 229,000 | 188,000 | 229,000 |
| 5 | Brisbane Heat vs Hobart Hurricanes[16] | - | - | - | - | 286,000 | 315,000 | 286,000 | 315,000 |
| 6 | Adelaide Strikers vs Melbourne Renegades[17] | 749,000 | 807,000 | 510,000 | 555,000 | ||||
| 7 | Hobart Hurricanes vs Melbourne Stars | - | - | - | - | ||||
| 8 | Sydney Thunder vs Sydney Sixers[18] | 642,000 | 584,000 | 399,000 | 374,000 | ||||
| 9 | Perth Scorchers vs Adelaide Strikers[19] | 983,000 | 864,000 | 667,000 | 579,000 | ||||
| 10 | Sydney Sixers vs Melbourne Stars[20] | 830,000 | 785,000 | 543,000 | 528,000 | ||||
| 11 | Hobart Hurricanes vs Sydney Thunder[21] [22] | 834,000 | 870,000 | 574,000 | 582,000 | 216,000 | 241,000 | 1,050,000 | 1,111,000 |
| 12 | Melbourne Renegades vs Sydney Sixers[23] | - | - | - | - | 292,000 | 286,000 | 292,000 | 286,000 |
| 13 | Hobart Hurricanes vs Perth Scorchers[24] | 876,000 | 795,000 | 581,000 | 523,000 | ||||
| 14 | Adelaide Strikers vs Sydney Thunder[25] | 636,000 | 610,000 | 435,000 | 416,000 | ||||
| 15 | Brisbane Heat vs Sydney Sixers[26] | 311,000 | 402,000 | ||||||
| 16 | Melbourne Stars vs Melbourne Renegades[27] | 530,000 | 518,000 | ||||||
| 17 | Sydney Thunder vs Perth Scorchers[28] [29] | 829,000 | 885,000 | 560,000 | 611,000 | 233,000 | 230,000 | 1,062,000 | 1,115,000 |
| 18 | Melbourne Renegades vs Adelaide Strikers[30] [31] | 835,000 | 827,000 | 563,000 | 570,000 | 211,000 | 189,000 | 1,046,000 | 1,016,000 |
| 19 | Hobart Hurricanes vs Sydney Sixers[32] | 746,000 | 818,000 | 454,000 | 514,000 | ||||
| 20 | Melbourne Stars vs Sydney Thunder[33] | - | - | - | - | 195,000 | 287,000 | 195,000 | 287,000 |
| 21 | Perth Scorchers vs Brisbane Heat[34] | - | - | - | - | 242,000 | 149,000 | 242,000 | 149,000 |
| 22 | Adelaide Strikers vs Sydney Sixers | ||||||||
| SF1 | Hobart Hurricanes vs Melbourne Stars[35] | 458,000 | 460,000 | - | - | 254,000 | 270,000 | 712,000 | 730,000 |
| SF2 | Melbourne Renegades vs Sydney Sixers[36] | 458,000 | 533,000 | - | - | 223,000 | 266,000 | 681,000 | 799,000 |
| Final | Melbourne Renegades vs Melbourne Stars[37] | 475,000 | 600,000 | - | - | 287,000 | 342,000 | 762,000 | 942,000 |