Photo Credit: Hobart Hurricanes
The Hobart Hurricanes are thrilled to announce the contract extension of 26-year-old opening batter, Caleb Jewell.
The Tasmanian – who still has a year remaining on his current deal – has signed an additional two-year extension, which will see him remain in purple until at least 2026.
After being left out of the playing XI for the first three games of BBL|12, Jewell went on to make up for lost time, making back-to-back half centuries in his first two outings, and eventually going on to be a finalist in the voting for the Hurricanes’ BBL|12 Player of the Tournament.
Jewell went on to finish the season as the Hurricanes’ third-highest run-scorer, totalling 289 runs at an impressive strike rate of 144.50 across 11 innings, with a total of 42 boundaries – including 13 sixes. Jewell’s top-score for the season of 70 came against the Melbourne Stars in Hobart – a knock which came off just 44 deliveries.
However, Jewell’s talent with the bat is not limited to the game’s shortest format, with the prodigal talent also opening the batting for the Tasmanian Tigers in both the one- and four-day formats. A consistent season across these formats – amassing 317 runs at 52.83 and 652 runs at 38.35 respectively – saw him win his first Ricky Ponting Medal in season 2022-23, awarded to the Tigers’ Male Player of the Season across both formats of the game.
Jewell’s form with the bat has earned him various stints outside of his home state as well. In April this year he was selected to represent Australia A in a two-match series against New Zealand A in Christchurch, before jetting off to the UK for a stint with Doncaster Town Cricket Club in Yorkshire Cricket’s Southern Premier League.
Jewell is not back in Tasmania for long, flying to Queensland at the end of this week to again represent Australia A in another pair of four-day matches against New Zealand A.
“I’m really excited to be locked in with the Hurricanes until 2026,” Jewell said. “When I look back, overall, last year was a pretty consistent season for me, so I think that just affirms that this is a really great training and playing environment for me to be in, to continue to learn from and work on developing my game.”
“Plus, being from Tasmania, there’s really no other team I’d want to play for!”
Jewell added that he was confident about the Hurricanes’ fortunes looking ahead to BBL|13.
“As a team, we obviously would’ve definitely have loved to have gone deeper into the tournament last season,” Jewell continued, “however, we know we pretty much have all the right ingredients there. We’ve got a pretty similar backbone to our team as last year, we’ll hopefully pick up a couple of really great additions to our squad in the Draft, and I think really build on the home ground advantage we developed last year.”
Hobart Hurricanes and Tasmanian Tigers head coach, Jeff Vaughan, said securing Jewell’s services long-term was a no-brainer for his team.
“Caleb is the type of player we want to build our team around,” Vaughan said. “He’s local, he’s talented, and he’s still young enough to develop his game, but experienced enough that we know he can handle the big moments, so he’s going to be a crucial part of our team going forward over the next few years.”
“We also feel that Caleb is very much a future Australian representative, potentially across multiple formats of the game,” Vaughan added, “so to secure his services long-term for the Hurricanes is definitely a positive for us.”
Jewell joins Iain Carlisle, Tim David, Paddy Dooley, Nathan Ellis, Peter Hatzoglou, Ben McDermott, Riley Meredith, Mitch Owen, Billy Stanlake, Matthew Wade and Mac Wright as Hurricanes currently contracted for BBL|13.
The Hurricanes will get their BBL|13 campaign underway on December 11, when they take on the Sydney Sixers at home in Launceston.
Tickets for the upcoming BBL|13 and WBBL|09 seasons were released for sale to the general public yesterday. To secure your seat, head to Ticketmaster (for matches played at University of Tasmania Stadium) or Ticketek (for matches played at Blundstone Arena).
