Photo Credit: Melbourne Renegades
The Melbourne Renegades welcome the introduction of an inaugural overseas player draft for the upcoming Big Bash League season.
Cricket Australia today announced the KFC BBL|12 Draft, which will take place ahead of the season and revolutionise the competition and the way clubs sign international players.
Each club will have the opportunity to sign three players during the draft across four categories – Platinum, Gold, Silver and Bronze – and must select at least two players across the four rounds of drafting.
Clubs can add up to four replacement overseas players following the draft, from players who nominated for the draft but went unselected.
“We believe the overseas player draft is a fantastic initiative and we’re excited to see it introduced into the competition for BBL|12,” Melbourne Renegades General Manager, James Rosengarten, said.
“This will revolutionise the Big Bash, especially on the back of the past two seasons being impacted by COVID-19. We strongly believe the draft will help bring more of the world’s best players back to the Big Bash, add to the excitement for fans and drive another layer of hype and intrigue ahead of the season.
“Creating the draft has been a collaborative approach between Cricket Australia, Big Bash clubs and other key stakeholders in the game. From a club perspective, this means we have been heavily invested in the draft concept from the outset and strategically thinking of how we can maximise this as part of our list management process.
“Alongside our head coach David Saker and our coaching team, we have been working through our list management strategy for the past six months to turn things around on-field in BBL|12, with a view to our domestic player mix and then how to complement that through the draft.
“Over the coming months, we look forward to announcing some re-signings and the addition of some new domestic and international players. We are building a team which will play an exciting brand of cricket for our fans, but most importantly with a view to taking the Renegades back into the finals mix.”
The draft order will be determined by a weighted lottery.
As a result of finishing eighth in BBL|11, the Renegades will be guaranteed one of the opening three selections in the draft – with a 50 per cent chance of drawing the prized first pick.
Round one of the draft will be for Platinum players only and will follow the draft order created from the weighted lottery.
Round two will follow the same order as round one, after which rounds three and four will follow a snaking order.
For domestic players, there have been no changes made to contracting mechanisms for the upcoming season.
The BBL|12 contracting embargo has lifted as of today, allowing clubs to start signing players for this year’s tournament and beyond.
Player nominations are now open for the draft, with full details and FAQs available here.
