As the Australian cricket team looks towards the World Test Championship final in June, it’s worth reflecting on some of the more unlikely success stories from this year’s Big Bash League.

First among them is the success of ACT-produced cricketers Jason Behrendorff and Tom Rogers, who took first and second place respectively in the BBL top wicket takers category.

Behrendorff started his cricket career with Eastlake and Rogers came through with Wests, following in the footsteps of his older brother John who also played first class cricket for Tasmania.

Behrendorrf’s 17 wickets topped the wicket takers column and Rogers came in second with 16, in a table which included recent One Day International World Cup winner Adam Zampa and several other international players.

It is worth suggesting that any future BBL expansion should include serious consideration of an ACT side, with Canberra’s population approaching 500,000.

The only negative aspect of the BBL is the excessive number of third umpire referrals and the length of time it takes for the third umpire to adjudicate some of them.  If players have 15 seconds to decide to refer, shouldn’t the third umpire have a time limit to adjudicate, so the game is not unduly held up?

Even umpires are “self-referring” decisions they should make, such as run outs or stumpings.  Field umpires no longer stand or get in line with the crease to decide run outs, presumably because they would obscure the camera view.  Hence, they cannot make a run out decision and they have to refer any close run out call to review.  Isn’t that circular?

One wonders if cricket will go the way of tennis, that is, field umpires replaced by computers and cameras?  The Australian and US Opens have replaced line judges with electronic line calling using Sony’s Hawk-Eye high-speed cameras to track the ball and decide if it landed in or out.  Wimbledon will abandon line judges this year.  The French Open continues to fully trust line judges and umpires, not allowing players to use electronic calling to challenge judges’ calls.