Australian cricket risks losing its top players to overseas leagues and missing out on the chance to attract Indian stars such as Virat Kohli unless it opens up the Big Bash League to private investment, Cricket Australia chair Mike Baird has declared.

The proposal to sell up to 49 per cent of BBL teams to private investors, such as Indian Premier League owners, tech moguls and local buyers, looms as the first privatisation of Australian cricket since Kerry Packer’s World Series Cricket revolution.

Following this masthead’s revelation that the chairs of three out of six states had written to CA to warn against rushing into private investment, Baird got on the front foot to talk up what he termed the “opportunities and risks” of selling off BBL teams – or choosing not to.

CA chair Mike

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