The schedule for next season’s Australia’s KFC Big Bash T20 has been announced and the number of games have almost doubled, up from 12 last season to 20 in the next one.

The tournament will now be played over two weeks more than what it had been in the previous season and will commence in the last week of December and the final will be played on the 5th of February.

Each of the teams will now play six games instead of the traditional four matches, and three of the six games will be home games and three will be away matches. Hence, there will be 18 league games, after which the top team in the round-robin will directly qualify for the final, whereas the second and third placed side will play in the semi-final – or the preliminary final as they call it.

Two foreign players per team will still be allowed, as was the case in the previous season, and this will ensure that some of the West Indian and English players will be a part of the tournament as well. The top two sides at the end of the competition will qualify to play in the next year’s Champions League T20.

Ricky Ponting had opposed the expansion of the league because he had said that it will affect the quality of the Sheffield Shield, Australia’s first class competition. Ponting has retired from the T20Is and will, in all probability not feature in the tournament either.

Australia will soon play a series against England, in which they will feature in five ODIs. After the last series between the two sides had ended in a 6-1 result for the Aussies, the tourists will go into the series as favourites – Stan James offering 8/15 for their win, as compared to Stan James’ offer of 6/4 to bet on an English win.