Melbourne Stars and Renegades set to merge into single BBL franchise

The Melbourne Stars and Renegades are set to merge into a single franchise in the Big Bash League. The merger will be administrative in nature and involve rebranding, but the player lists will remain unchanged for the foreseeable future. As pointed out in our explainer before, Cricket Victoria are one of the three state associations who are in favour of privatisation of the Big Bash League. Once that goes through, the state board intend to sell its second Big Bash franchise license in full. Renegades' General Manager James Rosengarten is expected to be the GM of the newly formed team. A lot of other details like the make up of the playing squad, the venue of choice as well as the name of the team and more, remain a work-in-progress. This new development is still in its infancy. The next update could be determined by the outcome of Cricket Australia's key meeting on June 15 where plans regarding the privatisation of the league will be further discussed.