The Community Basketball League, or CBL, is a junior domestic competition run by Camberwell Basketball across Melbourne's inner east. It launched in February 2022 with more than 450 teams and had over 520 teams playing in the 2026 winter season.
Written by Cameron James, founder and head coach at Liddicoat Basketball. Coaching juniors in Victoria for nearly a decade.
Last updated August 2026.
The Community Basketball League is a junior domestic competition operated by Camberwell Basketball. Games are played on weekends at venues across Melbourne's inner east.
It's one of the newer competitions in Victoria, which is unusual in a sport where most leagues have been running for decades. It launched in February 2022.
The scale is the story here. The CBL opened with more than 450 teams, which is a very large launch by any measure, and reported more than 520 teams for the 2026 winter season.
For a parent that growth matters in a practical way. More teams means more grades, which means a better chance of your child being placed against opposition of a similar standard rather than being thrown in with whoever is left.
| When | Teams |
|---|---|
| Launch, February 2022 | over 450 |
| Winter 2026 | over 520 |
Twelve domestic clubs play in the CBL.
Four of them are also affiliated EDJBA clubs: Balwyn Blazers, Ivanhoe Knights, Koonung Comets and Whitehorse Mustangs. That overlap catches people out, because a club can appear in more than one competition and a family can be told two different things by two different parents at the same club.
Games are played on weekends at venues across Melbourne's inner east. Exact venues depend on the fixture, so check before you drive.
The competition runs seasons through the year, with the winter season the larger of the two.
Four CBL clubs are also affiliated EDJBA clubs, and that overlap is the single most confusing thing about junior basketball in the inner east.
A club is an organisation that fields teams. Nothing stops it entering teams into more than one competition, and bigger clubs often do, because it gives them somewhere to put every child who turns up rather than turning kids away.
Ask which competition your child's specific team is entered in, not which competitions the club is involved with. Those are different questions and only the first one tells you the rules, the venue and the season dates that will actually apply on a Saturday morning.
Rules are set by the competition, not the club. So two teams from the same club can be playing under different rules in the same season. If your child has learned to defend under a no zone policy and their new team isn't in that competition, expect a confusing few weeks.
The Community Basketball League, a junior domestic competition run by Camberwell Basketball across Melbourne's inner east. It launched in February 2022.
More than 520 teams played in the 2026 winter season. It launched in February 2022 with over 450 teams.
Twelve domestic clubs. Four of them are also affiliated EDJBA clubs: Balwyn Blazers, Ivanhoe Knights, Koonung Comets and Whitehorse Mustangs.
On weekends, at venues across Melbourne's inner east.
Next questions parents ask
Every competition in this guide
With 520 teams around them, individual work is what separates players. That is exactly what the weekly plan does.