Hobart Hurricanes are the defending BBL champions (Photo by Steve Bell/Getty Images)
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Washington Freedom owner Sanjay Govil, an India-raised American tech entrepreneur, says he is “absolutely” interested in potentially investing in the Big Bash League, the Australian T20 franchise competition contemplating privatization and expansion.
An independent report from Boston Consulting Group has recommended Cricket Australia sell minority stakes in the eight BBL clubs.
The BBL, which started in 2011 and enjoys immense popularity in the heart of Australia’s cricket season in December and January, is an outlier among cricket’s T20 franchise leagues, with CA and the state associations having ownership control.
But there are winds of change, particularly after the recent sale of Hundred franchises in the England competition with the teams valued at $1.3 billion.
Govil, Montreal-born but grew up in India before making his fortune in the U.S. after launching Infinite Computer Solutions in 2001, secured a 50 per cent stake in Welsh Fire, a professional cricket team in the Hundred that has a $110 million valuation.
Sajay Govil has bought a stake in Welsh Fire (Photo by Francois Nel/Getty Images)
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Along with no doubt many other investors, particularly in the U.S. and India, Govil is monitoring the BBL developments closely. While privatization is widely anticipated, there has been pushback from some states and a decision is not expected for a while.
“Absolutely (interested). Monitoring it with great interest and when the time is right then we will evaluate,” Govil told me in a phone interview.
“I’m obviously a little biased with Major League Cricket, but I believe that the top four leagues in the world are going to be IPL (Indian Premier League), MLC, BBL and the Hundred.
“Just based on economic size and popularity of the sport in those countries, even in the U.S, which has so many expat Indians.”
With Australian superstar batter Steve Smith on the books of both Freedom and Fire, and with Washington having a partnership with Cricket New South Wales, Govil does seemingly have an early preference
“I have an admiration for Sydney,” he laughed. “But I’ll keep my options open.”
Another headliner of the report was for the BBL to consider expansion. New Zealand and Singapore have been floated as possible overseas locations, while it is learned that Malaysia has also expressed interest.
It comes as MLC is set to expand into Canada, with Toronto likely to be one of the two new franchises to come into the competition in 2027.
“That’s a great concept,” Govil said of possible BBL expansion. “If you look at MLC planning to expand into Canada, and if the BBL expands into New Zealand and South-East Asia, then it supports my view that the four big leagues basically represent large parts of the world.”
The affluent city-state of Singapore looms as an intriguing option as it attempts to re-emerge as a cricket destination reinforced by recently hosting the International Cricket Council’s annual meeting.
It hosted a trio of ODI tournaments around the turn of the century, and now sports a magnificent 55,000-seat national stadium, the showpiece of the Singapore Sports Hub in Kallang on the south coast of the island.
The national stadium has hosted major sports events, including regular soccer games featuring some of the world’s biggest clubs but, disappointingly, cricket has never been played there.
There had been discussions of the IPL being based there in its early years and so too the Pakistan national team when they were unable to host matches due to security issues. A T20 international match between Australia and Sri Lanka was also once mooted.
Arsenal and Newcastle played at the National Stadium on July 27, 2025 in Singapore (Photo by Yong Teck Lim/Getty Images)
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Having hosted many tournaments, becoming a hub for Associate cricket in South-East Asia, neighboring Malaysia are keen to get in on any possible BBL expansion although the country does not boast the type of showy stadium for cricket like in Kallang.
It is all for CA and its states to consider, as interest from abroad heightens.