As an arch-traditionalist who greeted the introduction of the BBL rather like blacksmiths welcomed the invention of the horseless carriage, I'm looking forward to attending the Melbourne Stars-Brisbane Heat at the MCG on Saturday night.

If you put aside your prejudices and admit the very-limited-overs form of the game has something, then this game appears to have just about everything.

The Stars are perched on top of the table after a season in which the ballistic duo Glenn Maxwell and Marcus Stoinis have been as threatening to the bucketheads in row WW as to anyone on the field.

The much-hyped Heat have underperformed to a such a degree they risk missing the finals, but now feature the second-best AB to sign a professional cricket contract in Queensland — AB de Villiers.

The South African adds his reputation — and hopefully his vast ability — to that of renowned brutalist Chris Lynn, while the great accumulator Marnus Labuschagne is back from Test duty and an Indian sojourn.

It is not even a great concern to we purists that Matt Renshaw, Test centurion and, briefly, the poster boy of dour openers everywhere will appear for the Heat in his new guise as an opening bowler and T20 specialist.

Matt Renshaw was once considered a dour accumulator, but has shown a new side in the BBL. ( AAP: Albert Perez )

If you love someone you have to set them free; even if that freedom entails the odd slog sweep.

On reputation alone this is a match-up that might once have been predicted to challenge the all-time BBL record attendance of 80,883 for the Melbourne derby on January 2, 2016.

That night of the clicking turnstiles came in the midst of a landmark season when the average BBL crowd was 30,114 and the competition took an iron grip on the sporting summer.

On Saturday night, however, the expectations are more modest, which might be presented as evidence by those currently prosecuting the case that the BBL is in decline.

Under the headline "BBL Crowds Down For A Third Straight Season", the Sydney Morning Herald reported this week that the BBL had an average attendance of 17,921 for its 46 games — 40 per cent less than in those halcyon days of 2016/17.

News Corp used similar figures to argue the BBL had a "viewership crisis".

Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume. Watch Duration: 34 seconds 34 s Marcus Stoinis is the leading run scorer in the BBL over the past two seasons.

As BBL management was quick to point out, those per-game figures are somewhat misleading given the increase in games in the past two seasons has meant total attendances remained similar while several games have been played in regional cities with smaller venues.

Condensing the fixture this season in response to concerns about last season's eternal BBL summer has also created some problems, including more games in the less popular pre-Christmas time slots and early start times for the first games of TV double-headers.

While total attendance is down 6.76 per cent on last season, crowds in capital cities have increased slightly and the overall numbers remain strong.

For all that, you can make a case that the BBL live audience has reached a peak. Albeit at a level that has vastly exceeded the initial expectation of those in Australian cricket who thought T20 cricket was the kind of lark where you put nicknames on the back of shirts and give rugby league players a game.

If so, the competition's next challenge is to ensure the massive gains are entrenched and that the apparent peak does not precede a trough.

Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume. Watch Duration: 1 minute 7 seconds 1 m 7 s Chris Lynn came within six runs of a BBL ton earlier this season.

BBL must avoid A-League's fate

The reported drop in average per-game BBL crowds will no doubt raise the eyebrows of those football fans who have seen the A-League's reputation tarnished, sometimes unfairly, as attendances gradually dwindled.

The combination of pent-up demand, novelty value and initially strong marketing drove the A-League's exciting early seasons until some self-inflicted wounds, including Football Federation Australia's untimely distraction with the 2022 World Cup bid, left the competition badly under-promoted even as the standard of play rose.

But if the BBL has also lost a bit of its early lustre, it remains the strong prime-time TV presence that, with Tests and one-day internationals, formed part of a cricket package that fetched a whopping $1.1 billion rights deal.

Another factor contributing to the A-League's stagnation has been the inability to connect the game's vast grass roots with the top local tier, something the FFA's new guard have accepted as their greatest challenge.

The A-League crowds didn't always look like this. ( AAP: Darren England )

With the BBL there is at least anecdotal evidence the league, and the format, has not usurped "traditional cricket" as some feared but has instead become an organic part of the game's ecosystem.

Over the summer we encountered in our local club's nets several youngsters who had given the game away in previous years to pursue different sports or because they had simply fallen out of love with the game emulating the feats of the previous night's BBL game.

At the same time you will find others who were initially attracted to play thanks to the BBL rapidly come to appreciate the longer forms of the game once they have progressed through the ranks.

Similarly, T20 cricket is being slowly inserted into club cricket as a time-friendly alternative to longer one- and two-day games, although not at the expense of those formats. This might in turn keep more people in the game.

Thus the BBL, and T20 as a whole, is adding to the game rather than merely taking a slice of some finite cricket pie, notwithstanding its arguably overstated place in the already crowded international schedule.

Which, other than a healthy does of Maxwellmania and some unrequited feelings for Renshaw, could explain why a once T20-resistant traditionalist is looking forward to a night at the BBL.

Even if the crowd figures have peaked, the format once portrayed as a threat to the game as we knew it is now instead merely one important part of it.