BBL 2025-26: Greg Shipperd slams scheduling after Sixers’ final loss

Sydney Sixers head coach Greg Shipperd criticised the Big Bash League’s tightly packed finals schedule after his side’s heavy defeat to the Perth Scorchers in the BBL final, stating that his team did not even get the opportunity to train ahead of the title decider.

The Scorchers clinched their sixth BBL title with a dominant six-wicket victory on Sunday, chasing down a modest target of 132 with 15 balls to spare in front of 55,018 spectators at Optus Stadium. The Sixers, however, entered the final following a physically demanding travel schedule that saw them fly to Brisbane, Perth, Sydney, and back to Perth within eight days.

The Sixers’ finals campaign proved particularly taxing. They lost the Qualifier to the Scorchers in Perth on Tuesday, defeated the Hobart Hurricanes in the Challenger in Sydney on Friday night, and then flew back to Perth on Saturday afternoon for Sunday’s grand final. The workload was such that Sixers captain Moises Henriques opted to skip a scheduled joint press conference with Scorchers skipper Ashton Turner on Saturday.

Scorchers defeat Sixers to become six-time BBL champions

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Scorchers defeat Sixers to become six-time BBL champions

On the field, the fatigue appeared evident. The Sixers were bowled out for 132 before the Scorchers surged to 80 without loss inside nine overs.

“It wasn’t ideal. Some of the scheduling was not what we were looking for. You don’t get a chance to train the day before the game, which I would have thought not many other sports are letting that happen at this elite level. We’ll feed some feedback back to headquarters. I think we were the only team that provided feedback to Cricket Australia [earlier this season]. So I don’t know whether other teams are lazy in that respect or we were thinking that we were going to be playing finals, and so we were worrying about that sort of thing," Shipperd said of the schedule post match.

Shipperd suggested that playing the final on Monday, with Australia Day being a public holiday, could have eased the burden.

“If it was a holiday, yes, we could have played on Monday and given our team that sort of break to freshen up going into the game, But that’s not a major excuse for us in the context of the season," he said.

The Sixers coach also questioned the decision to continue play during heavy rain in the Scorchers’ chase.

“We thought that there was an opportunity to come off. The umpires, I think, may have set a benchmark down in Hobart [in the knockout match on Wednesday] where they played through blinding rain. They probably played that same card tonight, when there may have been a possibility to come off and just reset, let the ground settle down in terms of the wetness of the ball," Shipperd said.

Former Australia captain Steven Smith, speaking on television, echoed the same concerns.

“There’s no way we should be playing cricket in this. I’ve never played when it’s been raining this hard. It’s pouring," Smith said on TV coverage.