Season Finale, with Alex Malcolm

TL;DR

India won the T20 World Cup in dominant fashion, exposing a global gap that Australia's upcoming cricket privatization is meant to address.

Key Points

• 1.India won back-to-back T20 World Cups, posting 255/5 and restricting New Zealand to 159, going 30 wins from 32 white ball games since the 2023 World Cup.
• 2.Australia's T20 failures at World Cups contrast with their test dominance — winning one bilateral test series loss in four years — reflecting a deliberate prioritization of red ball cricket.
• 3.Cricket Australia's privatization deal is expected to be decided within 6 weeks; states have until end of March to submit feedback, with a further two-week window before a final decision.
• 4.New South Wales is the primary opposition to privatization, proposing instead to deepen wagering partnerships with gambling operators to close CA's financial deficit.
• 5.The plan involves shifting test matches to December and opening January exclusively to a privatized Big Bash League, directly conflicting with the SA20 (starts January 10) and ILT20.
• 6.IPL-linked franchise owners already run simultaneous teams across multiple leagues — GMR Group owns teams in both SA20 and ILT20 — raising concerns about player loyalty and competition stability.
• 7.Players are currently incentivized to lose BBL finals to exit early and double-dip in overseas T20 leagues, a structural problem privatization is meant to solve but may worsen.
• 8.Australia's women won the multi-format series 12-4 over India, with Annabelle Sutherland scoring a century and taking six wickets across the test, averaging 89 with the bat in 7 tests.
• 9.Elise Perry became Australia's all-time leading women's test run scorer, averaging 59 with the bat and 21 with the ball across 15 tests, and scored a goal at the FIFA Women's World Cup.
• 10.Alyssa Healy retired after being chaired off the field, described as a "cricketers' cricketer" who declined a final bat to protect her average of 29 during a 10-wicket chase.
• 11.Play Cricket Wrapped — a Spotify-style AI season recap featuring personalized videos from Pat Cummins, Scott Boland, and Cameron Green — prompted reactions ranging from shame to horniness among grade cricketers.
• 12.Northern Territory cricket is trialling Full Track AI ball-tracking DRS for the Darwin District Competition starting April 2026, using a chest-mounted camera on umpires, with two unsuccessful reviews per innings allowed.
• 13.In the Sheffield Shield, South Australia has the inside running to meet Victoria in the final at Junction Oval after beating NSW by nine wickets; Queensland need extraordinary results to qualify.