Cricket Victoria (CV) has quietly filed to trademark the name Melbourne Rangers, the clearest sign yet that the Melbourne Stars brand could disappear if Big Bash League privatisation gets the tick in the next fortnight.
Paperwork lodged with IP Australia on 4 June – visible on the agency’s public register – shows CV wants exclusive rights to use Rangers across playing kit, merchandise, digital content and even mobile apps. The application currently sits at “waiting for examination”, with a preliminary response due by 3 September. Any name change would still need Cricket Australia (CA) approval.
Why Rangers? CV executives see it as a respectful nod to the old Bushrangers moniker Victorian men wore in domestic cricket until 2018. A straight revival of Bushrangers was canvassed, but insiders felt the term sat awkwardly alongside a women’s programme. Re-branding discussions have also landed on two back-ups – “Magic” and “Blazers” – though neither carries the same heritage feel.
The club would play in Victoria’s traditional navy blue, another deliberate step away from the green-versus-red divide that has split Melbourne’s two BBL fan-bases since 2011. Research commissioned by CV suggested Renegades supporters were unlikely to warm to a rebadged Stars outfit, yet followers of both sides might unite behind a team carrying the state’s colours and history.
Whether that team appears this summer is still up in the air. Under the hybrid privatisation plan – CA retains a minority stake while selling the rest – CV intends to keep hold of one licence (re-branded Stars) and sell the other (Renegades) outright. If the sale drags past October or a new owner is not ready, the Renegades could run in caretaker mode for the 2026-27 season. All of it hinges on state associations voting yes to the next phase on 15 June.
Last week’s leak of CV’s merger proposal sent Australian cricket into a spin. Staff learned the details at an internal meeting on Tuesday evening; within hours, the story was everywhere. CA and CV then spent three days hosing down speculation while stressing nothing is final.
An unscheduled call of the other state CEOs was held on Thursday. According to several officials on that line, CA chief executive Todd Greenberg conceded the timing “had not been ideal”. One administrator described the mood as “frank but calm”.
CV boss Nick Cummins later defended the early disclosure, arguing he needed to be straight with employees during an uncertain period. “My job is to prepare our people and our business,” he told local media, adding that clarity, even unfinished clarity, was better than silence.
A series of face-to-face meetings between state chiefs and CA is set for this week in Melbourne, leading into the 15 June vote. If the motion passes, those states willing to proceed – Victoria, Queensland and Western Australia are thought to be on board – will engage investment banks to market their licences. NSW and South Australia remain publicly wary; Tasmania has asked for more detail.
Behind the boardroom manoeuvres, players and coaches are trying to keep eyes on the winter. One senior Renegades player said the uncertainty was “annoying, but not unexpected”, pointing out contracts roll over on 1 July and no one wants to sign for a club that may soon vanish. A Stars staffer, meanwhile, admitted last week felt “strange – we might have a new badge and kit before we know who owns the competition”.
Even in a competition used to change – expansion teams, rule tweaks, scheduling flips – dumping the Stars name would be the most radical shift yet. Whether Melbourne Rangers ever takes the field now rests, as so often, on a boardroom vote rather than events out in the middle.
