CA confirms the flashy BBL draft to lure some international stars to Australia.
CA confirms the flashy BBL draft to lure some international stars to Australia. Cricket Australia hopes that adding an overseas draft will be enough to get the best cricket players in the world to join the BBL, even though there are more and more cash-rich T20 leagues to choose from. The recent announcement of a T-20 league in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) from January 6 to February 12 and a new Twenty20 tournament in South Africa has put more pressure on CA. Now they have to find ways to bring international stars to Australia for a tournament that has become too long because of more games.
Why the BBL draft?
The recent announcement of a $10 billion deal to broadcast the Indian Premier League shows how dangerous it is to fall behind in a market where players can make as much or more in T20 leagues as in international cricket. The draft may be one way to help the BBL compete with the UAE tournament, which will have teams owned by IPL heavyweights and other investors. Still, CA General Manager of Big Bash Leagues Alistair Dobson said that he is confident the BBL can attract big names in an increasingly competitive market.
The BBL Structure
CA has been thinking about the pros and cons of a draft for a few years and believes the move is good on a number of levels:
- There will be four rounds, and players will be put into bronze, silver, gold, and platinum groups.
- The three teams that finished last in the tournament last summer will go into a lottery to decide the order of the first three picks.
- The five teams that made the playoffs will go into a second lottery to decide their order.
During the four rounds of the draft, each club must bid for at least two and no more than three players. After that, players will put themselves forward for the gold, silver, or bronze rounds, and CA will eventually promote 12 to 15 of them to platinum. These players will go into the first round, which will be the most watched round for sure. BBL clubs have a salary cap of about $1.9 million, but CA will give more money to top up the retainers for platinum players, which are thought to be worth about $340,000 each. The extra money will come from a discretionary funding pool that is being used to make money offered in the BBL more competitive on the global market.
After the Draft
Once the draft is over, clubs can sign up to four replacement international players, but they must have been nominated for the draft to be eligible. So each team will have 18 players, plus two or three players from outside the country. The dates for the BBL haven’t been set yet, but there might be some changes to how the games are played this summer.
CA confirms the flashy BBL draft to lure some international stars to Australia
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