^^ Judging from their schedule, i doubt if they want to host T-20 World Cup at all. It seems to me that T-20 WC is not lucrative in eyes of Cricket Australia, if we consider Empty stands and Risk of pandemic.
^ I tried to watch BBL couple of times but got bored quickly due to absence of premier players from the Oz squad, No Starc, no Warner, no Smith, no Patty and on some occasion no Maxi... nah sorry BBL.
Not unexpected. BBL salaries are very low, and I am not even comparing them with the IPL. Even CPL and PSL pay much better salaries when compared to the BBL. As far as I know, the highest salary in BBL is $210,000. The salary cap per team (i.e for all the 16 players) is just $1.6 million. On top of that, around 45% of whatever earned by the top players in BBL is deducted as tax by the Australian authorities. So is it even surprising that the star players are skipping the tournament?
Also, there was an infamous incident last year, when Sandeep Lamichhane left the BBL to play BPL in Bangladesh. Because his salary with Sylhet Sixers was much higher than what he was earning with the Melbourne Stars.
It would be good start if they conduct BPL when their premium players not playing any important series. Why would anyone watch BBL (except locals) when their own players playing in the high profile series at the same time (For ex : Australia VS India)