Sydney Sixers head coach Greg Shipperd has questioned the brutal BBL scheduling after his side was comprehensively outplayed in Sunday night’s final.
Soundly beaten by the Scorchers for the second time in Perth in just five days, the Sixers were forced to endure a horror travel burden that Shipperd has no doubt took its toll on his side.
“It wasn’t ideal—some of the scheduling was not what we were looking for,” Shipperd lamented after the match.
“We thought perhaps there could have been a day spaced the first time we came here out of Brisbane (final match of the BBL 15 regular season).”
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“Then it was back to Sydney of course, and back here again. You don’t get a chance to train the day before the game—I would have thought not many other sports are letting that happen at this elite level,” the Sixers boss continued.
“We’ll give some feedback back to headquarters… there’s bigger fish that are making those decisions (than us).”
In particular Shipperd wondered why the final could not have been moved back 24 hours given Monday is already a public holiday for Australia Day.
“We could have played tomorrow (on Australia Day), given our team that break to freshen up going into the game.”
After Perth won the toss and elected to field on a tricky pitch, the Sixers slumped to be all out for just 132.
The Scorchers then chased the total down with 15 balls to spare, winning by six wickets in front of a parochial home crowd at Optus Stadium.
It was the franchise’s sixth BBL championship in 15 seasons.