Cricket Australia has moved further away from a Christmas Day Big Bash League match, instead scrapping the December 24 fixture off their calendar.
BBL officials revealed their calendar for the 2023-24 season on Thursday, with Brisbane to open the tournament when they host the Melbourne Stars on December 7.
Seven matches will be played during the opening week of the competition, before the competition breaks for five nights during the Perth Test involving Pakistan due to timezone clashes.
The rest of the tournament will then operate beside the Test summer, with the grand final to be played on January 24 on the day before the Gabba day-night Test against West Indies begins.
The reduction of regular-season matches from 56 to 40 means all but three games will be played in primetime, while the finals have been simplified to a four-game top-four system.
But the most interesting facet is around Christmas.
Cricket has toyed with the idea of playing on Christmas Day for the majority of the tournament's 12-year history, and introduced Christmas Eve games in 2019.
Speculation around the possibility of a December 25 fixture increased last year, when the NBL played on the day for the first time and attracted its highest ratings with 300,000 viewers.
Cricket officials are known to have watched those numbers with interest, and will again pay close attention to how the NBL fare this summer with two games on the date.
But ultimately they have opted again playing on Christmas Day for now, while also moving away from December 24 which has traditionally been hosted by Hobart.
"There are some inherit challenges with Christmas Eve around travel availability and scheduling of that game," BBL boss Alistair Dobson said.
"A December 23 game for the Hurricanes is something they will build up and continue that tradition.
"Christmas Day is one that is often raised. In the season we have with 40 games and the ability to schedule our games in the best spots, we haven't seen the need to schedule a Christmas Day game.
"It's not something we have a firm policy on one way or another ... If in future seasons it looked like one for us to explore, we would work with our stakeholders on that."
Dobson is also hopeful the earlier start to the tournament, forced largely by the Perth Test, will help attract international talent via the draft for a greater portion of the competition.
There is theoretically a greater gap in the franchise schedule around that time, before the South Africa T20 and ILT20 are expected to start in mid-January.
"Starting a week earlier is a great opportunity for players to come and play most, if not all, of the BBL season again. We are optimistic of that," Dobson said.
2023-24 BBL KEY DATES
Season opener: Brisbane Heat v Melbourne Stars, December 7
Perth Test break: December 14-18
Christmas break: December 24-25
Major semi: January 19
Minor semi: January 20
Preliminary final: January 22
Final: January 24
