First impressions of the Big Bash League

The brand new Big Bash League has already been called many things. Cricket Australia sees it as the way to reinvigorate domestic cricket in the country, get kids and women into the game and provide a much-needed new stream of income that doesn't depend on gate taking at international matches. Cricket purists describe it as a pointless marketing exercise, with clumsily manufactured new teams taking part in a sub-standard version of the sport.

After the opening weekend of the inaugural tournament, both parties can still claim to be in the right. Reaction to the weekend's games was mixed; it wasn't a runaway success by any means, but neither was it the disaster some traditionalists may have preferred.

We'll start with the negatives.

Cynics who saw the competition as little more than an excuse for Cricket Australia's marketing department to run wild wouldn't have been surprised by the tournament's so-called "opening ceremony" at the SCG on Friday night. Big-name DJ Paul Mac was hired to play 30-second soundbites in front of an almost non-existent crowd as the eight team captains took turns appearing on the stadium's big screens to explain each franchise's team culture – an impressive feat in itself considering every team was yet to play a game.

American-style cheerleaders performed a few stunts in front of the 125-year-old Member's Stand before the players took to the field in magenta and teal (that's pink and light blue to the typical cricket fan). Less than half of the 25,000+ expected crowd had turned up to see the next generation of Australian cricket, which paradoxically saw Brett Lee bowling to Matthew Hayden in the first over.

The Sydney Sixers' tight effort in the field against the Brisbane Heat (we'll leave aside the issue of team names for now) meant the much-hyped batting fireworks were few and far between in the first innings of the new tournament. Fortunately the organisers had prepared some actual fireworks of their own. They were launched at the game's midway point, predictably covering the ground in a layer of smoke that delayed the start of the Sixers' innings.

But at last, the cricketers did the talking on the field. Brad Haddin's free-flowing approach to batting, the cause of his recent woes in Test cricket, was the perfect fit for the shortest form of the game. He belted a match-winning 76, backing-up some good work with the ball by a grey-haired, 40-year-old Stuart MacGill. A day later David Warner would smash an unbeaten 102 from just 51 balls to give the competition's other Sydney team a victory over Shane Warne's Melbourne Stars.

Fortunately for Cricket Australia, it was Haddin and Warner who dominated the headlines. Underneath the layers of marketing spin, cheap sideshow entertainment and firework smoke, the cricket itself is the only thing that can sell the Big Bash League to the fans.

Twenty20 is the fast-food version of cricket, but it is still cricket. Haddin and Warner scored mostly through genuine aggressive cricket shots, rather than out-and-out slogs. Paceman Ben Hilfenhaus accurately bowled a maiden while taking 2-10 from four excellent overs in Hobart's win over Perth on Sunday.

It may not mean anything to anyone beyond instant entertainment, but like fast food, it sells. It's so simple that even children and Americans can follow it, even if that simplicity is what alienates die-hard cricket tragic.

Crowds of 13,000 and 20,000 may not have met some optimistic expectations, but they are monstrous compared with the usual attendance at a Sheffield Shield match. Saturday's Sydney Thunder v Melbourne Stars game drew the fourth-biggest pay television audience in Australian history.

It's too early to speculate how fast the novelty value will wear off, or how much of that TV audience will be convinced it's worth paying $20 to actually get to a game. But domestic Australian cricket needs a boost, and maybe this latest reincarnation of hit-and-giggle can provide it.

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