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Cricket Australia pushing for Christmas Day Big Bash game
SEN • December 28th, 2025 12:34 pm
Cricket Australia CEO Todd Greenberg would love to see a Big Bash game on Christmas Day.
As things stand, there’s no cricket on both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, and Greenberg thinks it could be the perfect slot for the BBL.
With the New Year’s Eve match in Adelaide a smash hit, Greenberg says that Cricket Australia is having live conversations with the players’ union about introducing festive cricket.
“It’s a live conversation, my personal view is that would be a brilliant slot in the right market with the right teams,” Greenberg told SEN.
“Clearly, we have to work through the ACA and the players because we need to work with them on that.
“But we are actively engaged conversations as we speak … we’ve got a couple of models we’re testing and again we need to work with the players.
“I don’t want the players to feel like this has been imposed on them, I want the players to feel like they’re a part of something special and they’re a part of another occasion.
“I remember before AFL and NRL really nailed down Anzac Day, there was criticism about playing on Anzac Day, now that’s one of the great moments in the winter codes for both.
“I get a sense cricket can do that on Christmas Day … we are looking at that carefully.”
As things stand, the Australia Cricketers’ Association has agreed to play BBL on Christmas, although the match must be a local derby starting at 4pm, likely to allow players to spend time with their families during the day.
ACA CEO Paul Marsh says the hold up currently is that Cricket Australia would like the match to no be a derby between the two Melbourne or Sydney sides.
“I think what’s not being said is under our current agreement, they can play on Christmas Day, it just has to be one of the derbies,
“There’s nothing stopping Cricket Australia playing the Stars v Renegades or the Thunder v Sixers. That was agreed before my time.
“Cricket Australia would rather it not be one of the derbies, so that conversation is ongoing.
“Family time is really important, we’ve got to find the balance here where we’re not taking that away from our players… but we’ll continue to talk about it and we’re open to the discussion.”
A report from news.com.au suggests that there’s said to be a clause in the current agreement to allow players to withdraw from Christmas cricket on religious grounds.
