The WBBL and BBL drafts took place on Sunday as clubs filled their overseas slots for the upcoming season. There were plenty of familiar names, but also a few surprises and some interesting tactics. Here are a few aspects that stood out
Mandhana a steal for Adelaide Strikers
Securing Smriti Mandhana‘s signing is rarely a bad thing, doing it at nearly half the price of the top category available – silver at AU$65,000 compared to platinum at up to AU$110,000 – looks like a superb bit of business from the defending champions. They were the last club to confirm their pre-signing and the connection between Mandhana and Luke Williams, the Strikers coach and also her WPL coach with Royal Challengers Bengaluru, looks to have paid significant dividends. The fact that Mandhana will miss some early matches due to an ODI series against New Zealand may have helped, but she could easily have commanded a higher figure.
Instead, it meant that Strikers were able to bring back Laura Wolvaardt in the platinum category when Hobart Hurricanes made an early play; the potential of her and Mandhana opening together for a period mid-season is an enticing one. Then when Wolvaardt leaves for international duty, Mandhana will still be there. To cap off Strikers’ draft they provided further interest and took Ireland’s Orla Prendergast.
Meanwhile, the influence of connections formed in the WPL was evident throughout with six India players signed in total – a record for the WBBL. However, captain Harmanpreet Kaur was not among them. “It was an odd one…it’s a big surprise she’s not part of the tournament,” Sydney Sixers general manager Rachael Haynes told AAP. “It just shows perhaps teams are really looking at skill set, so they’re getting very picky and then perhaps once that skill set has been met, they’re moving on to the next priority on their list.”
Renegades pounce on Scorchers’ salary cap squeeze
Managing the salary cap was a key issue throughout both drafts. One of the most obvious impacts was Laurie Evans‘ acquisition by Melbourne Renegades with Perth Scorchers unable to use their retention option given the purse they had left. “We love Laurie, he’s been brilliant for us…[but] we ran the risk of one of the other teams picking him up,” coach Adam Voges said. “Unfortunately, we didn’t have the salary cap to match at platinum.”
With Scorchers having gone big for Finn Allen – potentially one of the standout signings for the season – and having an expensive domestic list, they got creative for their two on-the-day draft signings having passed on round two. Matthew Hurst, an English wicketkeeper-batter, was taken at silver and fills the need of providing back-up to Josh Inglis while Keaton Jennings was a somewhat surprising bronze pick to fill the spot of a left-handed top-order batter. Significantly, all their overseas players have full availability, as do Brisbane Heat’s trio of Colin Munro, Paul Walter and Tom Alsop. Although the pre-signs helped, some teams have clearly shifted tack after last season’s exodus around finals.
Hurricanes come out strong to force retentions
Hobart Hurricanes, who had pick No. 1 in the WBBL, came out on a mission to force the hand of others. The first three names called out were met with retention options: Sophie Ecclestone (Sydney Sixers), Heather Knight (Sydney Thunder) and Wolvaardt (Strikers). Their first pick which stuck was Danni Wyatt, who last season was selected by Perth Scorchers before withdrawing. With Chloe Tryon their next pick and Lizelle Lee the pre-sign Hurricanes have bolstered the top and middle order when it appeared beforehand that a pace bowler would be a requirement. But coach Jude Coleman said they were confident in their domestic players to fill those roles.
Welcome back, Bangladesh
Rishad Hossain will become just the second Bangladesh player after Shakib Al Hasan to appear in the BBL after he was the surprising final selection by Hobart Hurricanes, who have Ricky Ponting as part of their strategy team. Ponting is entering the final season of a three-year deal with the club and each draft there has been intrigued around Hurricanes’ selections. Two years ago, in the inaugural draft, they went Pakistan-heavy then last season there was the signing of Corey Anderson among the picks.
Now they’ve gone for Rishad, the 21-year-old legspinner, a style of bowling which is a rarity in Bangladesh. He was impressive at this year’s T20 World Cup with 14 wickets in seven matches including 2 for 23 against Australia. “[He’s] hopefully someone who can stay with us for a number of years,” general manager Salliann Beams said. His availability is currently stated as six to nine games plus finals and Beams added that there were a few issues to work through around that in the coming weeks. Bangladesh have a white-ball series in the West Indies which overlaps with the start of the tournament, and the Bangladesh Premier League – if it takes place on schedule following the changes in Bangladesh, and Bangladesh cricket – could run almost parallelly to the BBL.
Who is Jafer Chohan?
If Rishad’s selection came as something of an eye-brow raiser, then the final pick of the draft, by Sydney Sixers, was a real curveball. Sixers have been known to go for an inexperienced spinner – they have previously signed Izharulhaq Naveed and Rehan Ahmed – but Jafer Chohan takes it to another level. It’s understood that Sixers had made clear they wanted a legspinner as their final pick to supplement Akeal Hosein and Todd Murphy and full availability. It left a relatively thin list to pick from.
The 23-year-old has played 23 T20s for Yorkshire and took 17 wickets in this season’s T20 Blast where he picked up a hand injury and wasn’t part of the Hundred. Last year he had a deal with Southern Brave but didn’t play a game. He is a graduate of the South Asian Cricket Academy (SACA), a scheme launched in 2021 aimed at addressing the underrepresentation of British South Asian players at the top level. After being released by Middlesex aged 17, he returned to the county game through the SACA, where he worked closely with Amar Rashid, Adil’s brother, and impressed Joe Root while being a net bowler with the England side. “I couldn’t be more grateful: without him [Adil] and Amar, my game wouldn’t be where it is right now,” Chohan said earlier this year.