Want to put cricketers into a good place for IPL: BBL head

Indian Premier League (IPL) is the world's best domestic competition and Big Bash League (BBL) head Kim McConnie hopes it will continue to lead the way and provide a roadmap for other leagues in the world.

"Hats off to IPL. It is by far the best domestic competition in the world," Kim told PTI Bhasha at Melbourne Cricket Ground.

"We often say that BBL is being used as a launch pad where cricketers around the world can showcase their talent and hopefully put them into a good place for the IPL," she added.

With a firm focus on growing the Women's League, Big Bash last year appointed Kim as its head. She joined Cricket Australia from PepsiCo, where she was Head of Sports Marketing at the company's global headquarters in New York.

"IPL has shown the roadmap for the other leagues in the world. We pay great attention to the IPL and notice what they are doing especially from the talent point of view. It will continue to lead the way in many factors," Kim said.

"We learnt from the IPL many things like fan engagement. Lot of our players come back with a lot of great stories from IPL. We have borrowed from IPL the concept of merging sports with entertainment and now BBL is like family entertainment where whole family come and sit together to watch matches."
Asked how difficult it is to keep the league clean from menaces like fixing, Kim said: "CA's integrity team is doing great work. We stand by our clean record. Most important is that our players and coaches take it seriously and will continue to do so."