Ponting and Khawaja flag BBL concerns amid new T20 league renaissance

Australian cricket is under greater pressure than ever to attract big overseas talent to the BBL due to the huge amount of money that may be offered in the new South African and UAE T20 leagues which will run at the same time of year. , according to Ricky Ponting and Usman Khawaja.

Ponting has moved into a team role in the BBL for the first time since playing and commenting on the tournament for the first 11 years after being appointed chief strategist at Hobart Hurricanes. He made his first major appointment Friday announcing Jeff Vaughan as head coach for the next three years alongside new assistants James Hopes and Darren Berry.

Ponting and his new coaching staff held a three-hour meeting on Thursday night where they discussed Hurricane’s plans for the upcoming overseas draft to be held on August 28. Hurricane will have the last (8th) pick in the first two rounds after being drawn out last in a weighted lottery.

But following developments that South Africa’s new T20 league has sold ownership of their respective new franchises to IPL owners, and with the same likely to happen in the UAE, Ponting warns the BBL may be under greater threat than ever in terms of attracting players. best considering the overlap in January.

“There’s probably more pressure on Cricket Australia now than ever before,” Ponting said. “I don’t know what Cricket Australia thinks as far as the current model they have but it seems, if you look at this year’s draft, and you look at the availability of players, it looks like the majority of players are quite happy to commit to the BBL for the first half, six or eight games. first.

“Then the South African tournament starts in mid-January and you can guarantee the players will probably play the first half here and play the second there, which for a tournament like Big Bash is not ideal. So if there is a way and a way that can be changed then I think Cricket Australia should definitely look at that.”

Even for local players here, if leagues start showing up in UAE, South Africa, wherever, what if local players start thinking I’ll be paid twice as much money to go and play there why would I stay here in Big Bash

Usman Khawaja

Time to go private?

Khawaja is even more forthright about the threat CA faces from overseas tournaments. He was part of the Australian Cricket Association delegation conference in Melbourne earlier this week where CA CEO Nick Hockley and BBL chief Alistair Dobson were both present on the upcoming season and draft. Khawaja reiterated his belief that competition should look to private investment.

“I’ve talked about this before, I think there’s a crossroads for Big Bash in my personal opinion,” Khawaja said. “I’m not speaking for the ACA or CA, my personal opinion is the BBL need to look into privatization because the money has to come from somewhere. Players won’t come to Big Bash unless you pay them the right money.

“There’s another tournament starting that’s being privatized. If you don’t follow it, and there’s a small window for Big Bash to privatize in the next few years, and I’m afraid if we don’t, we’re going to be left behind. You’re going to see players who aren’t listed for mandatory. military. I have spoken to the couple and they are not enlisted for military service because they want to spend Christmas at home and then will go and play in the UAE That has been a red flag for me.

“Money has to come from somewhere and you don’t want it to come from CA shares, then it affects other parts of the organization. So why not bring in money from outside. I think IPL is a very good model. If we don’t try to follow developments like that , I feel BBL can be left behind.”

This season the BBL will run from December 13 to February 4 with overseas players being able to nominate how many of them are available.

Hobart Hurricanes chief strategist Ricky Ponting appoints Jeff Vaughan as new Hurricanes coach•Tasmanian Cricket

Faf du Plessis has included his name in the draft along with current South African Rilee Rossouw, among a number of others. Du Plessis is set to be locked up as a platinum player but may not be available for the second half of the tournament if he chooses the South African league, meaning the BBL team will have to weigh in on whether he or another platinum player is worth using around AUD$200,000 of the $1.9 million salary cap over the course of his career. half season. Platinum players are set to earn up to $340,000 but CA will make a difference which will be out of bounds.

BBL teams have opted for lower tiers overseas in the past to make them available for the entire tournament with the signings of Colin Munro and Laurie Evans from the Perth Scorchers last year as prime examples.

“If you want to have 14 games like the IPL, the money has to match,” said Khawaja. “Even for the local players here, if leagues start showing up in the UAE, South Africa, wherever, what if the local players start thinking I’m going to be paid twice as much to go and play there, why would I stay here? Big Bash. That’s a question we have to ask ourselves. I don’t think the number of games is the issue, personally, it’s the salary cap.”

Homemade name

Australia’s international signings are another element of this year’s tournament with multi-format players, some of whom are clubless, set to be available over the last three weeks after the scheduled ODI series with South Africa was cancelled.

Last season Steven Smith was not allowed to play in the final for the Sydney Sixers despite wanting to. A key part of the next MOU negotiations between CA and ACA, which will officially start in September, will be regarding CA’s contracted players appearing in the BBL if available. David Warner has not played in the tournament since 2013 and Mitchell Starc has said he will not be available this year as he has opted to take a break. Whether they are forced to play and who they are playing for is an issue that needs to be resolved in the near future.

Steven Smith is likely to appear in the BBL this season•Getty Images

“I don’t think players want to be told where they are playing,” Ponting said. “I think they want to have options. I know that was one of the things we talked about last night, if there’s a chance for us to be able to get some people who are going to have it. pretty good rest now in the middle of this tournament, so we threw a few names there.

“This has been talked about for a long time now too. How do we get Australian players back into the BBL but more importantly, if we do, how are they paid for, and with what team are they linked? And I think it’s coming to the point now… with other tournaments around the world more and more attention should be paid to it for the sake of BBL.

“I think there’s a chance that attracting the best overseas talent here will probably get even more difficult as we’ve seen in the last three or four seasons. But the most important thing is to get our best Australian players when everyone is available to come and play in the BBL.”

Alex Malcolm is Associate Editor at ESPNcricinfo

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