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Big Bash League: Teams allowed to play three overseas players
BBCSport
Teams in Australia's Big Bash League will be able to field up to three overseas players this winter, up from two last season.
The 10th edition of the Twenty20 tournament begins on 3 December.
Cricket Australia's Alistair Dobson described the change as a "major milestone" in the league's development.
Surrey opener Jason Roy became the sixth England player involved in this season's competition when he signed for Perth Scorchers on Friday.
Yorkshire's Dawid Malan joined Hobart Hurricanes earlier this week.
Meanwhile Afghanistan spinner Rashid Khan, the world's number one ranked Twenty20 bowler, has re-joined Adelaide Strikers, while compatriot and number one ranked Twenty20 all-rounder Mohammad Nabi has signed for Melbourne Renegades.
"We know our fans want to watch the best players from around the world and this week, we've added three of the best in Dawid Malan, Rashid Khan and Mohammad Nabi, plus a host of other top players," added Dobson.
The other England players in the competition are Liam Livingstone, who has rejoined Perth Scorchers, and Alex Hales, who has re-signed for Sydney Thunder, while Tom Banton has a deal with Brisbane Heat and Tom Curran has one with Sydney Sixers.
TrentBridge.co.uk
Samit to play in Sri Lanka
Samit Patel has been selected by Dambulla Hawks in the draft for the inaugural Lanka Premier League.
The Notts all-rounder is one of four overseas stars named in the Hawks’ squad for the T20 competition, which is due to run from 21 November to 13 December.
Patel will line up alongside Carlos Brathwaite, David Miller and Niroshan Dickwella, with the likes of Angelo Matthews, Andre Russell, Lasith Malinga and Chris Gayle also taking part in the tournament.
The 35-year-old, who took 11 wickets in the Outlaws’ victorious Vitality Blast campaign, is the latest Notts player to confirm an overseas assignment, after Alex Hales was picked up by Sydney Thunder for the 2020/21 BBL.
T20 skipper Dan Christian, meanwhile, will link up with Sydney Sixers ahead of Australia’s short-form competition, having made the switch from the Melbourne Renegades.
Hales return heralds BBL's England influx
cricket network 11/10/2020
A third English import has been confirmed for the coming KFC BBL season after big-hitting opener Alex Hales re-signed with the Sydney Thunder.
Hales joins compatriots Tom Banton (Brisbane Heat) and Tom Curran (Sydney Sixers) as the only internationals to so far confirm involvement in the milestone 10th season of the BBL, with a glut of England players expected to follow suit.
While Banton and Curran had existing multi-year contracts for this summer, Hales is the first international to commit to coming to Australia in the midst of the COVID19 pandemic.
Hales, who has agreed a new one-year deal and will again link with Usman Khawaja at the top of the Sydney Thunder batting line-up, will be available for the full BBL season as he remains on the outer with the England national set-up.
Curran, Banton and other BBL targets, such as the Perth Scorchers' interest in Jason Roy and Liam Livingstone, and Jonny Bairstow who has been lined up by the Melbourne Stars, are waiting to learn if England and South Africa authorities agree terms for a proposed white-ball tour in late November.
Reports out of Pakistan of a possible T20 tour by England in late January have not been substantiated, but discussions for the South Africa tour is "at an advanced stage", and the quarantine requirements for England players on their arrival into Australia could see them miss the opening games of the BBL season.
That won't be an issue for Hales, with England captain Eoin Morgan earlier this year saying "it will take more time" before the 31-year-old could again be considered for national selection following his recreational drugs ban in 2019 that threatened to derail England's World Cup campaign.
After single seasons with the Melbourne Renegades (BBL02), Adelaide Strikers (BBL03) and Hobart Hurricanes (BBL04), Hales will play a second season with the Thunder having been a stand-out performer last summer.
He was the tournament's second highest run scorer with 576 runs in 17 games at a strike rate of 146.93, launching 23 sixes and passed fifty sixes times.
Hales, who signed a one-year deal, said he believe the Thunder was a team on the rise.
"To get the chance to come back is exciting because we're at the start of something... I think the next two-to-three years is going to very special for Sydney Thunder," Hales said.
"I really believe that, and to know I'm coming back to that means a lot.
"A lot of people had written us off as no chance at the start of (last) season, but we performed extremely well and won some fantastic games.
"So when I look back on last season I think it was a very successful one for us – as a very young and talented squad – to make the finals."
Khawaja and Hales were second only to Perth's Josh Inglis and Liam Livingstone as the BBL's most productive opening partnership, with three stands worth 96 or better in the season.
"Usman and I are different players – and I think that's important for an opening pair," said Hales.
"It means bowlers need to bowl at different lengths and different areas, and (we) score at a different tempo.
"On top of all that, I think the right-hand, left-hand combination worked really well. Usman is also a very calm guy too, a very calm influence, and that's very important in T20."
The return of Hales follows the Thunder extending the contracts of Daniel Sams, last summer's leading wicket-taker, and young spinner Arjun Nair. The club has also added allrounder Ben Cutting, while delisting Gurinder Sandhu and Jay Lenton.
Sydney Thunder BBL10 squad (so far): Jonathan Cook, Ben Cutting, Oliver Davies, Brendan Doggett, Callum Ferguson (c), Matthew Gilkes, Chris Green, Alex Hales, Usman Khawaja, Nathan McAndrew, Arjun Nair, Alex Ross, Daniel Sams, Jason Sangha, Tanveer Sangha, Chris Tremain
He really needs some runs or the Franchise bosses will go for someone else soon for certain
ReplyDeleteReally is obviously a period of huge uncertainty
And in cricket one uncertainty is how people in India, Australia, here etc will react once crowds allowed back
People may have lost friends and/or family members. They could be out of work or fearing they could be. Will they pay up to watch sport at all ? How will they feel when they hear the huge sums Franchise players are receiving ?
I honestly do not know
But this is not the World that these competitions have operated in before
Its the fear of the unknown unknowns!
ReplyDeleteWhat sort of crowd limits will Australia impose when the BBL gets underway?
Will the virus continue to play havoc with all spectator sports?
No doubt about it ! Playing only T20 cricket in different Countries and only being on the field of play for a couple of hours or so instead of days as in red ball stuff certainly will appeal to many of our cricketers in the future. The 4 day stuff must be so shattering on a hot summers day for bowlers bowling 20-30 overs and batsmen playing hours on end.
ReplyDeleteAsk yourself this question
If you were a prolific fast scoring batsmen or a brilliant " death bowler" would you not be tempted to seek a good living globe trotting to play in White Ball only Leagues and Competitions as opposed to long long days on the field of play of the longer formats?
Well either beat staring at a computer all day, or sweating away in a factory, if any stay open
ReplyDeleteAnd I would choose the format I love, the real game
ReplyDeleteFor many Rich- CASH IS KING!
ReplyDeleteHowever what with the current on -going crisis there will obviously be less of it sloshing around in 2021.
The hard reality of much reduced spectator numbers and its knock- on effect
Oh yes, so for all sport, entertainment of all sorts and even more for retail
ReplyDeleteWatched a bit if Sheffield Shield cricket and realised why I love cricket. For me, and respect other views,the ever shortening formats contain nothing of the beauty of the game, the very soul of it
Other thing in T20 etc, is that club players can never play it like the Hales and Morgans. Do not have the power to hit maximum after maximum as they call it
With traditional cricket (and I love good tradition), school, league, club players cannot play as pros d9 in FC cricket, but they can play to their ability in a similar way
The battle between bat and ball, and the tactics, skills and innovations of each getting ahead 9f the othe, then being caught up and over taken , without those, and T20 has so little of that, it is empty to me
Me again !
ReplyDeleteHave been fortunate to watch Samit throughout his career to date
He is one of the best shorter form players in the World, although clearly age has it's effect on his fielding now.
In FC Cricket he is still a batsman to be reckoned with and a an economic bowler .
May be wrong, but never thought he should be our number one spinner in the longer format, as he is mainly a defensive bowler. His career stats back that you up.
If we play on a bunsen burner, we need 2 spinners + Samit
Am not a fan of franchise sport in any sort, but would I turn the money down had IIbeen gifted with cricket skills ?
Probably not, well maybe to play for England, but then players do continue to do that
Why has Sri been omitted I've never heard them called just Lanka before ? Particularly good in sub-cont. conditions expect Samit to go well yet again out there.
ReplyDeleteI don't know, but that's what they have called the league there.
DeleteSri Lanka means "Resplendent Island". Perhaps with Covid, it's less resplendent (Sri) at the present(?)
DeleteIsland Premier League - could be franchised to any island or group of islands in the future if events dictate.
Thanks. I thought Lanka was the giraffe from old Trafford
ReplyDelete