‘Financial necessity’: Why Victoria is killing off the Melbourne Stars and Renegades

Updated June 3, 2026 — 6:02pm,first published June 3, 2026 — 9:21am

New South Wales, South Australia and Queensland have requested an urgent meeting with Cricket Australia about Victoria’s shock decision to merge the Melbourne Stars and the Melbourne Renegades, as Victoria prepares to sell a second “clean” Big Bash League licence to private owners.

The merger caused major reverberations on Wednesday, leaving players such as Glenn Maxwell in limbo, as former Stars impresarios Eddie McGuire and John Wylie questioned the wisdom of retiring the glamour club’s brand after 15 years.

A source close to the state associations told this masthead Victoria’s move was “reckless, chaotic and careless”. A second source, also not prepared to speak publicly before the crisis meeting, said: “What a cluster.”

NSW, SA and Queensland, the three states not yet in favour of selling stakes in their teams, had been gearing up for a June 15 meeting with CA and the other states to work through their options, but were compelled to hold a separate call on Wednesday and have requested a joint meeting with CA on Thursday.

Cricket NSW chair John Knox and chief executive Lee Germon said in a letter to their members on Wednesday night that,“This announcement came as a complete surprise to us.

“We have contacted Cricket Australia to request an urgent meeting to see clarification about this matter and to understand the path forward.”

The Australian Cricketers’ Association argued the merger had caused “confusion, uncertainty and anxiety” among Stars and Renegades players who include Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, Will Sutherland and Nathan Lyon.

The Stars will be rebranded for the coming BBL season, while the Renegades will play as the Renegades unless they are sold and rebranded beforehand.

McGuire and Wylie, who served as president and vice-president of the Stars between 2011 and 2019, said it would be challenging to rejig the identities of the two Melbourne teams.

Wylie, the CEO of Tanarra Capital and former chair of the Australian Sports Commission, supports private ownership in the BBL because of the fresh voices and ideas it would bring, but questioned the logic of extinguishing the brands before going to market.

“At face value it’s a strange and retrograde step in my view,” Wylie told this masthead. “There’s 15 years worth of brand development that’s gone into developing the Stars and the Renegades and the history of commercial sports franchises shows that these things have value.

“I don’t think it’s axiomatic with foreign ownership that if that’s the way the Renegades go, woul