The First Ever BBL overseas Draft | Full Recap including picks and retentions:
On Sunday, the inaugural overseas players draft for the 12th edition of the Big Bash League (BBL) was held and there were many surprises at this draft, including three Pakistani players being picked up by the same franchise.
Many big names who had nominated themselves for the draft remained unpicked, including the likes of Faf Du plesis and Andre Russell, as only 7 out of 12 platinum players got picked. The availability of the players was a big factor for all the teams when deciding their picks, and most players picked by the teams would be available for either full or majority of the upcoming season of the Big Bash League.
The eight franchises made their choices from a massive pool of 332 players from 20 countries. Melbourne Stars, Adelaide Strikers, Sydney Thunders and Hobart Hurricanes spent the most budget whereas the Perth Scorchers, who passed their pick in the first round, spent the least amount.
A total of $5.735 million was spent on players with players being selected across four different salary bands with only the 12 platinum ($340,000) players able to be selected in round one, platinum and gold ($260,000) in round two, gold and silver ($175,000) in round three and silver and bronze ($100,000) in round four.
Each team picked three players in total across the four rounds:
The draft kicked off with Liam Livingstone being picked by the Melbourne Renegades in the Platinum category. Next up their counterparts Melbourne Stars picked up the most wanted Rashid Khan however this was matched by the Adelaide Strikers who then used their retention card and retained Rashid khan, making the stars rethink and picking up Trent boult instead.
All the sides had the option to use 1 retention card to retain one of their foreign players from last season however apart from the Adelaide strikers who used their retention card on the young afghan leg-spinner Rashid Khan, only one other side, the defending champions Perth Scorchers used this retention card choosing to retain the Englishman Laurie Evans.
Below is the Recap of all the picks made during the draft:
Round One:
1. Liam Livingstone – Melbourne Renegades (Platinum)
2. Rashid Khan – Adelaide Strikers (RETENTION PICK – Platinum)
3. Trent Boult – Melbourne Stars (Platinum)
4. Sam Billings – Brisbane Heat (Platinum)
5. Chris Jordan – Sydney Sixers (Platinum)
6. Pass – Perth Scorchers
7. David Willey – Sydney Thunder (Platinum)
8. Shadab Khan – Hobart Hurricanes (Platinum)
Round Two:
9. Mujeeb ur Rahman – Melbourne Renegades (Gold)
10. Joe Clarke – Melbourne Stars (Gold)
11. Colin Munro – Brisbane Heat (Gold)
12. Laurie Evans – Perth Scorchers (RETENTION PICK – Gold)
13. James Vince – Sydney Sixers (Gold)
14. Colin de Grandhomme – Adelaide Strikers (Gold)
15. Alex Hales – Sydney Thunder (Gold)
16. Asif Ali – Hobart Hurricanes (Gold)
Round Three:
17. Faheem Ashraf – Hobart Hurricanes (Silver)
18. Rilee Rossouw – Sydney Thunder (Silver)
19. Phil Salt – Perth Scorchers (Silver)
20. Adam Hose – Adelaide Strikers (Silver)
21. Pass – Sydney Sixers
22. Pass – Brisbane Heat
23. Luke Wood – Melbourne Stars (Silver)
24. Pass – Melbourne Renegades
Round Four:
25. Akeal Hosein – Melbourne Renegades (Bronze)
26. Pass – Melbourne Stars
27. Ross Whiteley – Brisbane Heat (Bronze)
28. Izharulhaq Naveed – Sydney Sixers (Bronze)
29. Pass – Adelaide Strikers
30. Tymal Mills – Perth Scorchers (Bronze)
31. Pass – Sydney Thunder
32. Pass – Hobart Hurricanes
Full Squads:
Below is the full list of the teams squads for the upcoming edition of the Big Bash league, due to commence from December onwards.
Melbourne Renegades: Zak Evans, Aaron Finch, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Sam Harper, Mackenzie Harvey, Nic Maddinson (c), Shaun Marsh, Kane Richardson, Tom Rogers, Jon Wells.
Melbourne Stars: Joe Burns, Hilton Cartwright, Brody Couch, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Liam Hatcher, Clint Hinchliffe, Nick Larkin, Glenn Maxwell (c), Billy Stanlake, Marcus Stoinis, Beau Webster, Adam Zampa.
Perth Scorchers: Ashton Agar, Cameron Bancroft, Jason Behrendorff, Cooper Connolly, Aaron Hardie, Peter Hatzoglou, Nick Hobson, Josh Inglis, Matthew Kelly, Mitch Marsh, Lance Morris, Jhye Richardson, Ashton Turner, Andrew Tye.
Sydney Sixers: Sean Abbott, Jackson Bird, Dan Christian, Ben Dwarshuis, Moises Henriques, (c), Daniel Hughes, Hayden Kerr, Nathan Lyon, Steve O’Keefe, Kurtis Patterson, Josh Philippe, Jordan Silk.
Sydney Thunder: Oliver Davies, Brendan Doggett, Matthew Gilkes, Chris Green, Baxter Holt, Nathan McAndrew, Alex Ross, Daniel Sams, Jason Sangha, Tanveer Sangha, David Warner.
Brisbane Heat: Xavier Bartlett, James Bazley, Max Bryant, Sam Heazlett, Usman Khawaja, Matthew Kuhnemann, Marnus Labuschagne, Michael Neser, Jimmy Peirson, Matthew Renshaw, Mark Steketee, Mitchell Swepson, Jack Wildermuth.
Hobart Hurricanes : Tim David, Nathan Ellis, Caleb Jewell, Ben McDermott, Riley Meredith, Mitch Owen, Joel Paris, Wil Parker, D’Arcy Short, Matthew Wade.
Adelaide Strikers: Wes Agar, Cameron Boyce, Alex Carey, Harry Conway, Ryan Gibson, Travis Head, Henry Hunt, Thomas Kelly, Chris Lynn, Harry Nielsen, Matt Short, Jake Weatherald, Henry Thorton.
Draft Picks: Rashid Khan (Afghanistan), Colin De Grandhomme (New Zealand), Adam Hose (England)
