Breaking Down Home Ground Advantage In The Big Bash League
Last updated: Dec 17, 2019, 5:05AM | Published: Dec 16, 2019, 11:08AM
The home advantage in sports is quite a common phenomenon.
Home stadium, vocal supporters cheering the team on and familiar playing conditions all add up to generally offer some advantage to the home team.
But home advantage can vary. Both from sport to sport, and from one team to another. While some teams seem to have a fortress, many others also take pride in sporting an impressive away record.
READ: Identifying the DNA of a BBL innings
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With the Big Bash starting in less than a week, we decided to do some digging and check up on what home advantage looks like in the Big Bash League.
* These statistics specifically exclude matches where there was no result, or where the Duckworth-Lewis method was applied.
How have home teams fared?
As expected, home wins edge victories by the visiting teams in the BBL, but it’s not by a large margin at all. In fact, the difference is just one win (140-139).
However, when we break it down further, we see there have been only three Big Bash seasons where home teams outperform their travelling counterparts.
Interestingly, the last two editions (the two longest seasons of BBL cricket) saw home teams claim more than 60% of match wins.
RELATED: Breaking Down Home Ground Advantage In The BBL
It could be that a longer tournament allows teams and players to adapt to their home conditions as the season goes on. It could also be that travelling later in the tournament induces additional fatigue after a few gruelling weeks of constant cricketing action. There are, of course, additional factors and theories but it’s hard to pinpoint one single reason for this change in pattern.
| BBL Season | Home Wins | Away Wins |
| 1 | 15 | 14 |
| 2 | 14 | 18 |
| 3 | 16 | 17 |
| 4 | 16 | 16 |
| 5 | 15 | 20 |
| 6 | 13 | 21 |
| 7 | 23 | 15 |
| 8 | 28 | 18 |
| Overall | 140 | 139 |
Home & Away: How have the teams performed so far?
It wouldn’t be surprising for many to read that Perth and Hobart are the two most successful franchises when playing at home in the Big Bash League.
Having won over 64.29% of their games, the three-time BBL champion Perth Scorchers are undisputedly the best home team in the league.
AROUND THE GROUNDS: Scoring Trends At BBL Stadiums
As would be expected in any sporting competition, most teams perform fairly well at home, but the Hobart Hurricanes really put their foot down when playing locally, with an 11.44% difference in their win % at home compared to their away record, ranking first in the league for this metric.
| Team | Home Games | Home Wins | Home Losses | Home Win % | Home Loss % | Overall Win % | Difference |
| Renegades | 35 | 15 | 20 | 42.86% | 57.14% | 50.68% | -7.83% |
| Hurricanes | 34 | 19 | 15 | 55.88% | 44.12% | 49.33% | +6.55% |
| Stars | 35 | 19 | 16 | 54.29% | 45.71% | 53.33% | +0.95% |
| Strikers | 37 | 20 | 17 | 54.05% | 45.95% | 53.42% | +0.63% |
| Heat | 32 | 12 | 20 | 37.50% | 62.50% | 42.86% | -5.36% |
| Scorchers | 42 | 27 | 15 | 64.29% | 35.71% | 59.49% | +4.79% |
| Sixers | 34 | 18 | 16 | 52.94% | 47.06% | 52.63% | +0.31% |
| Thunder | 30 | 10 | 20 | 33.33% | 66.67% | 35.38% | -2.05% |
With a 58.82% win rate on the road, the Melbourne Renegades are the best travelling team in BBL. The reigning champions have won a whopping 15.97% more matches when they play away from the large boundaries of Marvel Stadium.
The Brisbane Heat share a similar story with an away record of 48.57% compared to a timid 37.50% at home.
| Team | Away Games | Away Win | Away Losses | Away Win % | Away Loss % | Overall Win % | Difference |
| Renegades | 34 | 20 | 14 | 58.82% | 41.18% | 50.68% | 8.14% |
| Hurricanes | 36 | 16 | 20 | 44.44% | 55.56% | 49.33% | -4.89% |
| Stars | 38 | 19 | 19 | 50.00% | 50.00% | 53.33% | -3.33% |
| Strikers | 32 | 17 | 15 | 53.13% | 46.88% | 53.42% | -0.30% |
| Heat | 35 | 17 | 18 | 48.57% | 51.43% | 42.86% | 5.71% |
| Scorchers | 34 | 18 | 16 | 52.94% | 47.06% | 59.49% | -6.55% |
| Sixers | 39 | 21 | 18 | 53.85% | 46.15% | 52.63% | 1.21% |
| Thunder | 31 | 11 | 20 | 35.48% | 64.52% | 35.38% | 0.10% |
If the theory of longer tournaments favouring the home side is true, we could see this recent trend continue in the coming season.
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