Five teams will face off in a revamped Big Bash finals format aimed at rewarding the top finishers and adding intrigue to the end of the season. Cricket Australia has unveiled fixtures for the 2019-20 season, with the finals reboot one of several measures targeted to winning back families.

Average crowds dropped in every state’s capital city during the expanded 2018-19 campaign, which spanned almost two months and was widely criticised for running well beyond the school holidays into a 17 February decider.

The 2019-20 regular season will be played across 41 days between 17 December and 27 January – the final day of school holidays – with the last seven home-and-away games crammed into the Australia Day long weekend. The finals will start on 30 January and run across two weekends, culminating in a Saturday night decider on 8 February.

Teams finishing first and second will earn a double chance under the new format. In eight BBL seasons, the minor premiers have only gone on to win the title once – in 2016-17 when the Perth Scorchers triumphed.

“The No 1 element is to make it the best chance for the teams finishing first and second to make it through,” CA’s head of Big Bash Leagues Alistair Dobson said. “It’s an amazing quirk of history that the team finishing first at the end of the season has only won it once.”

The teams that finish fourth and fifth will face off in a sudden-death clash, and – as is the case in the AFL – they would need to win four finals to claim the title.

A key concern last season was the short turnaround after the semi-finals which left little time to publicise the title decider. CA has looked to resolve that issue by providing the team that earns grand-final hosting rights with a full week to prepare.

The governing body hopes condensing the season will maximise viewer interest and make the BBL more attractive to big-name international recruits. With the exception of Christmas Day, games will be played every day between the start and finish of the regular season.

For the first time since 1994 there is no international fixture scheduled on Australia Day, leaving the BBL to fill the cricketing void.