Perth Scorchers’ batsman Ashton Turner is caught behind in Wednesday’s BBL clash in Launceston. Photo: GETTY IMAGES

While this year’s Big Bash League has introduced the “X factor” as one of its new rules, the reality is the star factor is still missing.

The lack of star power continues to be the competition’s achilles heel. While the Indian Premier League attracts the best of the best from around the world with the lure of mega dollars, the BBL is very much made up of the best of the rest.

This will continue to be a problem for the game. The very design of the BBL is based on attracting kids, teens and young adults. It’s tailormade for the Gen Z demographic who crave short, sharp, snackable content.

They like their sport fast-paced, with flashpoints and a climax that comes sooner rather than later. Many within this fan group would sooner watch mixed martial arts and extreme sport than golf or even Test cricket.

But perhaps most important in grasping and keeping their attention is a sport’s ability to pack a punch with its stars. For many Gen Z fans, individual athletes are a bigger drawcard than teams and leagues. They are fascinated by global superstars who are as well-known on the field as they are off it.

So, they are more likely to follow the likes of Ronaldo or Lebron James than the teams for which they play.

The evidence is not that hard to find: Ronaldo has three times as many social media followers on Instagram and Twitter than does his team, Juventus and his league, Serie A, combined. It’s the same with James, who has over 11 million more Facebook, Twitter and Instagram followers than the NBA.

Stars sell, but cricket’s biggest stars are not found in the BBL. In truth, they rarely have been.

From a purist perspective, watching the best players in the world makes for a better product, and in the absence of most fans having any historically ingrained, deep-seated emotion towards any of the BBL franchises, the BBL needs to ensure it’s the best product it can be.

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If it doesn’t, the competition will lose its lustre. Perhaps it already has. The opening week of the 2020/21 BBL season has been entertaining enough, but it certainly hasn’t yet whipped the sporting public or sports media into a frenzy.

On the day of the season’s opening match last Thursday, it was the AFL National Draft that made front-and-back page news here in Melbourne, not the BBL.

Five days later, and still three-and-a-half-months before the first round of the 2021 AFL season, the Herald-Sun led with a front-page teaser about an article ranking each AFL team’s defence, with no mention of the BBL in sight.

The game’s disgruntled free-to-air broadcast partner Channel 7 would also be shifting nervously in its seat.

The season’s opening night averaged 865,000 viewers nationally across Seven and Foxtel, but only 677,000 were watching the FTA network. This is a respectable figure, but not quite the bang Seven were hoping to open with.

Sunday’s match between the Sydney Sixers and the Melbourne Renegades, where the Renegades crumbled to an almost record low score, dipped below 400,000 viewers.

There are, of course, other factors impacting the competition so far this year, such as the fact the first week of matches have been played in Tasmania and the ACT in front of modest crowds. Plus, as the season progresses it may gain momentum, with sports fans desperate to attend live sport flocking to games in their droves.

Only time will tell, but it’s worth remembering just how spoilt today’s sports fan is for choice. With a click of a button, they can watch any sport anywhere in the world featuring some of the best athletes the world has ever seen.

If the BBL wants to maintain the attention of the sports fans across the country, it needs to ensure it’s an elite competition, featuring the very best cricketers in the world. It’s that simple.