Tony Veitch: Will T20 kill other forms of cricket?

January 24th 2017, WACA Ground, Perth, Western Australia; KFC Big Bash League One Day Cricket, Perth Scorchers versus Melbourne Stars. Photo / AP.

Has Australian Cricket created something so big, so popular, so unique it now has a real philosophical battle on its hands maintaining the relevance of all formats of the game?

Let me take you through some of the numbers of the sixth edition of this franchise now rated as the seventh biggest in the world.

*Average TV audiences for each match in Australia, 1.3 million.
*More than 1.8 million tuned in for the super over semifinal in Brisbane on Thursday.
*The Gabba, the home of cricket in Brisbane, has not put the full house sign out for 10 years.
*Over the past six weeks Brendon Mccullum's Brisbane Heat have sold it out three times.

At a time when the sporting landscape is shifting forever and fans are turning to their remotes more than ever, the Big Bash is bucking modern trends.

It has captured the youth market but also made matches a family affair.

Ish Sodhi says he couldn't believe the contrast in crowd interaction fielding at third man, playing for the Adelaide Strikers and New Zealand.

Big Bash chief Anthony Everard says McCullum is now a mega star of Australian cricket.

That's right, a Kiwi beloved by those nasty Aussie supporters.

The final key to the tournament's success is females. The BBL has won them over en masse. It's not a cricket occasion anymore, it's pure entertainment.

Now for the bad news. While Big Bash organisers are looking to take matches into cash rich Asia, they have ruled out brining games to New Zealand.

This is their baby after all, helping New Zealand is not a KPI for Australian Cricket. That also rules out a North-South team from New Zealand. It is never going to happen.

The big question for our players is do they resist signing centralised contracts knowing international duties negate their chances of cashing in and taking part in the biggest cricketing party on the planet?

Making peace with Serena

This is as much a question for Kiwi tennis fans as it is for ASB Classic tournament director Karl Budge.

Do you go after the Williams juggernaut one last time and call it payback?

It's a great debating point. Let's not forget she served up rubbish both on the court and off the court in Auckland and left organisers with a whopping $30,000 hotel bill, which was eventually written off by the hotel.

But, as we've seen in Melbourne when Williams is on, she is without doubt the greatest female player the world has seen. Not even Martina Navratilova or Steffi Graf at their prime could stay with her power.

Budge confirmed he sat down with Team Williams at the Australian Open and it went well.

With her lack of performance raised, if Budge was to sign the Queen of Tennis for one more classic, would that be seen as another coup for Auckland?

In my opinion yes, aim high, that should always be the role of an event organiser.

And this Australian Open may be remembered as the greatest ever for pure storylines.

Questions:

*What do I do now at 9.30 every night, now that the Big Bash is over and the tennis ends tonight?

*Anyone else gutted we won't get to see David Warner in New Zealand in the form of his life?

*On that note, can we please all embrace the Chappell-Hadlee? We had to work our butts off to get Australian Cricket to take us seriously again.

*Does it really matter who wins tonight, when the match of the century between Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal gets under way?

*Listening to Dean Barker on Radio Sport during the week, do you think I might still be angry over his axing from Team NZ?