The BBL will return to Christmas Eve in the 2026-27 season while the final will be hosted on Australia Day after two years without a match on January 26, a date with significant cultural sensitivities.

BBL boss Alistair Dobson said the new lights at the Junction Oval had paved the way to host a Christmas Eve match.

“It’s been one we’ve been looking at bringing back for a couple of years, and the installation of lights at the Junction Oval just created an opportunity to put a unique event in a new time slot, being a prime time game in Melbourne on Christmas Eve, and so working closely with the Renegades to establish that game was a key part of it,” Dobson told Cricinfo.

Stars will also play one home game at Junction Oval against Brisbane Heat on December 21 when the MCG is being prepared for the Boxing Day Test. CV will build temporary grandstands at Junction Oval for the matches to provide additional seating with the hopes of raising the capacity towards 6000.

Both Melbourne derbies will be played at the MCG next year, including one that starts at the earlier time of 6.05pm, after the two teams drew 68,000 in their MCG derby last summer.

CA has long considered adding a Christmas Day BBL match into the schedule but it remains clear for the moment as approval is still needed from the Australian Cricketers’ Association and the clubs.

“We’re interested in looking at Christmas Day when when the time’s right, and we’ve had a number of discussions with clubs and the ACA around that, and obviously well-being of players and everyone involved in the game to play a game on Christmas Day is a consideration,” Dobson said.

“It’s been discussed, and we’ll continue to look at that. But this year we thought Christmas Eve was was the right one to try.”

Approval is not needed to play on Australia Day, which had long been synonymous with Australian cricket, but no fixtures have been played in the last two years, although CA has previously said they were not deliberately avoiding the date.

CA has locked in the final on January 26 to avoid a clash with the first Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy runs from January 21 to 25 and will be guided by its Indigenous advisory group about how to approach the game.

“We’ve been consistent that scheduling BBL games on Australia Day is certainly something that we’re open to and comfortable with when the schedule allows or prefers that,” Dobson said. “The last couple of years, it’s been other dates for the final have been more optimized. The schedule for us this year, having the final on the 26th of January neatly fits around that first test in India, and obviously also being the public holiday, that gives us an opportunity to create that. So that was the point this year where it became the better slot for the final, and we’re looking forward to that as well.”

There are three matches in Canberra with Sydney Thunder to host two, including against Stars who will no longer host games in the capital, and Sydney Sixers who have moved a home game from Coffs Harbour.

Hurricanes will host one game in Launceston following the redevelopment work at the ground with four others in Hobart.

There are no BBL games on December 13 and 14 after the opener in Chennai before the second game of the season on December 15. The extra time gives Scorchers and Renegades eight and ten days respectively to return from India ahead of their second matches.

There will be six double-headers including two games each on Boxing Day and New Years Day as well as back-to-back double-headers on the final weekend of the home and away season on January 16 and 17.

The finals will be begin on January 19 but will not feature any of Australia’s Test players who look set to miss almost the entire season due to a four-Test series against New Zealand running from December 9 until January 8 before the team travels to India ahead of a five-Test tour that starts on January 21.