Sydney Sixers

The Sydney Sixers were created when the decision was made to move away from state representative teams to city-based teams for the domestic Twenty20 competition. It is believed that this move was to align its structure with that of India and South Africa, where domestic teams are based around cities. This was an important factor for the ongoing Champions League Twenty20 tournament, as those three nations were founding members. It was decided that there would be two teams from Sydney, two teams from Melbourne, and one from each other capital city for an eight team competition. The names Sixers (and Thunder for cross-city rivals) were decided upon by Cricket NSW. Other names considered for the two teams were Rocks and Edge.

The Sydney Sixers were chosen to host the first game of the new and exciting format of the BBL. The game was played on 16 December 2011, at the historical Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) against the Brisbane Heat. The Sixers then traveled down to Hobart and were dominated by the Hurricanes in a 42-run defeat. Phil Jaques and Travis Birt amassed a 107 wicket partnership, with Birt the Player of the Match. Upon returning home, a standout performance with the bat from West Indian import Dwayne Bravo assured the win for the Sixers with 51 runs as the Melbourne Stars fell two runs short in an exciting run chase. The Sixers then lost on the road to the Melbourne Renegades before picking up away wins against Sydney Thunder and Adelaide Strikers. The Sixers then battled-out a hard-fought win against the Perth Scorchers at home. After losing a couple of early wickets, Steve Smith smacked a quickfire 51 before the Sixers lost 5/8 in the final two overs to be bowled out for 176. In the end this was enough as the Scorchers failed to achieve the target by one run. The stunning spell of swing by Mitchell Starc earned him the Player of the Match.