The Big Bash League (BBL) will be shortened by more than a quarter at the behest of Cricket Australia following feedback from fans, broadcasters and players that the last summer's edition of the tournament went for too long.

During next summer, the BBL will see 56 games finish inside 42 days, a cut of 12 playing days from 2018-19 summer, with most of these matches scheduled to be held in the school holiday period.

The six-week-long season will run from December 17 to January 27 - almost two weeks short from last summer - featuring eight traditional teams but followed by a refurbished finals round, the details of which will be announced on Thursday (July 25) alongside the full tournament fixture.

The season culminates with all eight teams playing at least once over the Australia Day long weekend that will have seven matches in four days, including the return of cricket on January 26 at the Adelaide Oval. 

CA's new Head of the BBL, Alistair Dobson, was quite excited by the positive response from fans, players, clubs and broadcasters regarding a shortened season. 

"No one that we had in through this process has had any objection to the shorter season. It was overwhelming feedback primarily from fans, but players wanted to play more cricket in a shorter period and all our key stakeholders were on board with that," Dobson was quoted as saying by cricket.com.au.