Big Bash League side Melbourne Stars all-rounder John Hastings thinks that the Big Bash League Melbourne derby on Saturday "could set a crowd record" for domestic Twenty20 cricket, "further magnifying this summer's seismic shift in popularity to the shortest form of the game," according to Murnane & Paynter of the SYDNEY MORNING HERALD. The Stars and the Melbourne Renegades "will renew their rivalry" in a Melbourne Cricket Ground "blockbuster that officials will be hoping has the venue rocking after the tepid interest and attendance at the Test match between Australia and the West Indies at the same ground this week." More than just the crowd figures, the "general feeling that the Melbourne Test bombed as a spectacle continued an over-arching narrative in which Twenty20 has become king with crowds this summer, leaving the game's longest form to take a back seat." The attendance record for a BBL match is 52,633 for last year's semifinal "at the Adelaide Oval between the Strikers and the Sydney Sixers." The current BBL record "could even be broken before the two teams get to the MCG, with the Adelaide strikers confirming that their match against the Sixers two days earlier at the Adelaide Oval (listed capacity of 53,583) has been officially sold out." Crowds "have been huge for this BBL, with only one game failing to draw more than 15,000 fans at the box office, and most have been above 20,000" (SMH, 12/30).
