Cricket Victoria file trademark for 'Melbourne Rangers' amid Melbourne franchise merger

The new Melbourne franchise is almost set to be named 'Melbourne Rangers' after Cricket Victoria decided to merge the two Melbourne teams into one from the 2026-27 Big Bash League.

Earlier in the week, news had emerged that the two teams from Melbourne would be merged, with Cricket Victoria (CV) looking to sell the second stake in their team amid the hovering debate around private investment in the BBL.

As reported by ESPNcricinfo, CV applied to trademark 'Rangers' with the Australian government body which manages intellectual property rights. The name is a nod to the 'Bushrangers', the former name of the Victoria team. The club are also set to play in Victoria's navy blue colours. The paperwork for the same was filed on June 4 with an expected response timeline of September 3. The trademark would cover multiple uses such as jerseys, playing kits, branded material, digital content and apps.

The Stars have been chosen as the anchor franchise for the merger, with the Renegades possibly still existing for the 2026-27 season in 'caretaker mode', provided the license for the franchise is not sold or new owners are not ready for a full takeover ahead of the start of the WBBL in October. All available options on the sale still rely on states voting to proceed.

The news of the merger between the two Melbourne franchises became significant news as the club informed staff of their decision on the afternoon of June 2. The next few days saw CV and Cricket Australia engaged in measures of damage limitation. Meetings were convened hastily with other states, where CA were asked to explain the decision. CA CEO Todd Greenberg admitted the timing of the announcement was not ideal, with Nick Cummins, the Victoria CEO, stating that he was looking after his staff due to the uncertainty over the hybrid privatisation model.

CA's initial plan was to prioritise the whole tournament, but objections from New South Wales and concerns from Queensland and South Australia saw the process take a pause, with CA giving the freedom for states to choose how they wanted to go about it.

CV, who turned in favour of the privatisation model despite early uncertainty have always been expected to offload the Renegades. CA were notified of the plans, but hoped all announcements would be held on until the further stages of the process.

Meetings involving state CEOs are set to commence in the following week, with June 15 marked as a key date, when the chairs will vote on the states and their plans to go ahead with private investment.