England star No.1; WI gun in big $1.7m snub amid ‘extraordinary’ move: Big Bash League Draft wrap
England star No.1; WI gun in big $1.7m snub amid ‘extraordinary’ move: Big Bash League Draft wrap: England weapon Liam Livingstone was the first player to be picked in the inaugural Big Bash draft.
The batting all-rounder was one of England’s best during the 2021 T20 World Cup. He proved his worth bowling. He was acquired by the Melbourne Renegades.
“In the middle (he is destructive) and he also bowls leg spin, so sort of getting two weapons there – and he’s in some serious form,” Saker said.
When asked about Afghanistan gun spinner Rashid Khan, Saker said they were always “all in” on the all-rounder.
“Yeah, we talked about it. We just think he is going to get matched, so we thought we’d go and get Liam Livingstone,” Saker said.
“We were pretty strong on him to be fair. We have got the player we wanted.”
Seven players out of 12 premium players were picked up in the $340,000 bracket. This left $A1.7m of talent unpicked. The other platinum players who were not picked were Faf du Plessis, Jason Roy, Kieron Pollard, and Dwayne Bravo.
In total, $A5,735,000 had been spent on 24 players.
The first round of selections turned up some surprises. Andre Russell passed on and Khan’s selection at the Melbourne Stars was blocked by a retention pick from the Adelaide Strikers.
Strikers coach Jason Gillespie put up a reference to an infamous line from the movie ‘The Castle’ as he blocked the Stars.
“I was thinking of Darryl Kerrigan, tell him he is dreaming,” Gillespie said.
“Our plan was always to retain Rashid. He is a wonderful player, wonderful person, he’s been brilliant for our franchise over a number of years, and absolutely delighted to have him back.”
With Khan out of the reckoning, the Stars went on to choose New Zealand spearhead Trent Boult.
Hussey said he went for an “out and out bowler” and expected him to swing it at the MCG.
“He generally takes the ball for New Zealand and in the IPL, generally the white Kookaburra swings at the MCG so hopefully a few early wickets.”
The Brisbane Heat acquired the well-credentialled Sam Billings. The Sydney Sixers acquired England bowling all-rounder Chris Jordan.
The drama turned up when Adam Voges at the Perth Scorchers opted to pass on a ‘premium pick’ to go all in on the final three picks.
“Availability’s a real key consideration for us in this first pick, and we feel there are some great players still in the draft and look forward to using that in our next one,” Voges said.
“We have got a number of former Scorches in there that we have passed on as well, David Willey, another one,” he said. “But we know what type of player we want, the skill-set that we want, we feel like there are some good options in the gold round for us, and we’re looking forward to that.”
Host Kath Loughnan commented on the decision to pass as “extraordinary”. Mike Hussey named it a “massive call”.
“The Scorches have a number of good all-rounders already,” Hussey said.
“They have got Mitch Marsh in there, there is Aaron Hardie in there as well. So the David Willey pick made sense, but maybe it does not quite fit what they want, but that is a massive call to pass on a platinum level player.”
Meanwhile, Ricky Ponting’s Hurricanes acquired Pakistan leg spinner Shadab Khan.
The two-time World Cup-winning captain expressed his surprise that the bowling all-rounder was not picked first-up. He added that he was surprised Andre Russell was not picked either.
“We have got for Shadab Khan,” Ponting said.
“He is a high-class international leg-spinner, very handy with the bat as well, he’s a gun in the field, so we think we’re bringing in a three-dimensional cricketer into our sport.”
“He has got reasonable availability looking into what he might be available for, might miss a week in the middle and then be available for the finals if we make them, so we are doing what most other teams are doing and looking to get these international players for as long as we can and he fits exactly what we need.”
“I wasn’t expecting Shadab and was not expecting Russell, to be honest. It was a big decision for us to make then but we’ve been pretty clear right from the start that if Shadab was there at the end then that was the way we were going to go.”
FULL LIST OF DRAFT PICKS
ROUND 1 (PLATINUM ONLY)
1. Liam Livingstone — Melbourne Renegades
2. Rashid Khan — Adelaide Strikers (retained)
3. Trent Boult — Melbourne Stars
4. Sam Billings — Brisbane Heat
5. Chris Jordan — Sydney Sixers
6. Pass — Perth Scorchers
7. Sydney Thunder — David Willey
8. Hobart Hurricanes — Shadab Khan
Total value: $A2,380,000
ROUND 2 (PLATINUM + GOLD)
9. Mujeeb Ur Rahman — Melbourne Renegades
10. Joe Clarke — Melbourne Stars
11. Colin Munro — Brisbane Heat
12. Laurie Evans — Perth Scorchers (retained)
13. James Vince — Sydney Sixers
14. Colin de Grandhomme — Adelaide Strikers
15. Alex Hales — Sydney Thunder
16. Asif Ali — Hobart Hurricanes
Total value: $2,080,000
ROUND 3 (GOLD + SILVER)
17. Faheem Ashraf — Hobart Hurricanes
18. Rilee Rossouw — Sydney Thunder
19. Phil Salt — Perth Scorchers
20. Adam Hose — Adelaide Strikers
21. Pass — Sydney Sixers
22. Pass — Brisbane Heat
23. Luke Wood — Melbourne Stars
24. Pass — Melbourne Renegades
Total value: $875,000
ROUND 4 (SILVER + BRONZE)
25. Akeal Hosein — Melbourne Renegades
26. Pass — Melbourne Stars
27. Ross Whiteley — Brisbane Heat
28. Izharulhaq Naveed — Sydney Sixers
29. Pass —Adelaide Strikers
30. Tymal Mills— Perth Scorchers
31. Pass — Sydney Thunder
32. Pass — Hobart Hurricanes
Total value: $400,000
Overall value: $5,735,000
PLAYER PAY
Platinum – AU$340,000
Gold – AU$260,000
Silver – AU$175,000
Bronze – AU$100,000
FULL LIST OF NOMINEES
Afghanistan
Eligible for retention: Rashid Khan (Adelaide Strikers), Mujeeb ur Rahman (Brisbane Heat), Qais Ahmad (Melbourne Stars), Zahir Khan (Melbourne Renegades)
Other nominees: Noor Ahmad, Allah Mohammad Ghazanfar, Ijaz Ahmadzai, Zia ur Rehman, Sharafuddin Ashraf, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Shafiqullah Ghafari, Usman Ghani, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Hamid Hassan, Hamza Hotak, Waqarullah Ishaq, Hashmatullah Shahidi, Nangeyalia Kharote, Izharulhaq Naveed, Azmatullah Omarzai, Abdul Rahman Rahmani, Waqar Salamkheil, Mohammad Shahzad, Naveen-ul-haq Murid, Ghamai Zadran, Hazratullah Zazai
Bangladesh
Al-amin Hossain, Shafiul Islam, Ripon Mondol
Bermuda
Kamau Leverock
Canada
Kairav Sharma
England
Eligible for retention: Sam Billings (Sydney Thunder), Joe Clarke (Melbourne Stars), Ian Cockbain (Adelaide Strikers), Jordan Cox (Hobart Hurricanes), Tom Abell (Brisbane Heat), Tom Curran (Sydney Sixers), Laurie Evans (Perth Scorchers), George Garton (Adelaide Strikers), Chris Jordan (Sydney Sixers), Alex Hales (Sydney Thunder), Tom Lammonby (Hobart Hurricanes), Tymal Mills (Perth Scorchers), Reece Topley (Melbourne Renegades), James Vince (Sydney Sixers), Daniel Worrall (Adelaide Strikers)
Other nominees: Toby Albert, Kashif Ali, Tom Alsop, Martin Andersson, Gus Atkinson, Rehan Ahmed, Josh Baker, Sonny Baker, Jake Ball, Daniel Bell-Drummond, Luc Benkenstein, Jacob Bethel, Alex Blake, James Bracey, Tom Banton, Henry Brookes, Patrick Brown, Brydon Carse, Matthew Carter, Jordan Clark, Josh Cobb, Mason Crane, Zak Crawley, Matt Critchley, Solomon Budinger, Steven Croft, Liam Dawson, Alex Davies, Brett D’Oliveira, Jacobus Leus Du Plooy, Stephen Eskinazi, Joey Evison, Joe Denly, Matt Fisher, Luke Fletcher, Ben Geddes, Ben Gibbon, Richard Gleeson, Lewis Gregory, James Fuller, Sam Hain, Haseed Hameed, Miles Hammond, Tom Hartley, Nicholas Gubbins, Jack Haynes, Freddie Heldreich, Tom Helm, Max Holden, Adam Hose, Benny Howell, Louis Kimber, Tom Kohler-Cadmore, Danny Lamb, Tom Lawes, Jack Leaning, Jake Lintott, Ryan Higgins, Liam Livingstone, David Lloyd, Adam Lyth, Wayne Madsen, Conor McKerr, Lewis McManus, Ben Mike, Tom Moores, Daniel Mousley, Steven Mullaney, Craig Overton, Daniel Moriarty, Jamie Overton, Samit Patel, Callum Parkinson, Matt Parkinson, Michael Pepper, Ollie Pope, Matthew Potts, Matthew Quinn, Ben Raine, David Payne, Adam Rossington, Jason Roy, Phil Salt, George Scrimshaw, John Simpson, Prem Sisodiya, Nathan Sowter, Mitchell Stanley, Cameron Steel, Darren Stevens, Olly Stone, Will Smeed, Callum Taylor, Jack Taylor, Tommy Taylor, Liam Trevaskis, Joe Weatherley, Ross Whiteley, David Willey, Chris Wood, Luke Wood, Rob Yates, Paul Walter, Saif Zaib
Ireland
Mark Adair, Curtis Campher, Gareth Delany, Andy Balbirnie, George Dockrell, Josh Little, Paul Stirling, Harry Tector
Namibia
David Wiese
Nepal
Eligible for retention: Sandeep Lamichhane (Hobart Hurricanes)
Other nominees: Subash Khakurel
Netherlands
Colin Ackermann, Bas De Leede, Brandon Glover, Fred Klassen, Maxwell O’Dowd, Shariz Ahmad, Vikramjit Singh, Timm Van Der Gugten, Paul Van Meekeren, Tobias Visee, Roelof Van Der Merwe
New Zealand
Eligible for retention: Colin Munro (Perth Scorchers)
Other nominees: Trent Boult, Mitchell McClenaghan, Todd Astle, James Neesham, Ross Taylor
Oman
Bilal Khan
Pakistan
Eligible for retention: Ahmad Daniyal Latif (Melbourne Stars), Syed Faridoun Mahmood (Melbourne Stars), Shadab Khan (Sydney Sixers), Mohammad Hasnain (Pakistan), Fakhar Zaman (Brisbane Heat)
Other nominees: Tayyab Abbas, Asif Afridi, Abrar Ahmed, Iftikhar Ahmed, Sarfraz Ahmed, Abbas Afridi, Sohail Akhtar, Kamran Akmal, Faisal Akram, Qasim Akram, Umar Akmal, Asif Ali, Haider Ali, Adil Amin, Faheem Ashraf, Umaid Asif, Amad Butt, Shahnawaz Dahani, Salman Fayyaz, Mohammad Amir, Kamran Ghulam, Zafar Gohar, Sameen Gul, Mir Hamza, Mohammad Haris, Dilbar Hussain, Mohammad Ilyas, Mohammad Hafeez, Ali Imran, Muhammad Imran Jnr, Arshad Iqbal, Muhammad Irfan Junior, Salman Irshad, Akif Javed, Usman Khalid, Azam Khan, Zeeshan Zameer, Mohammad Irfan, Imran Khan, Junaid Khan, Maaz Khan, Sharjeel Khan, Sohail Khan, Zaman Khan, Sohaib Maqsood, Shan Masood, Musa Khan, Usama Mir, Muhammad Salman Mirza, Saad Naseem, Usman Qadir, Momin Qamar, Rumman Raees, Mamoon ur Riaz, Mehran Mumtaz, Wahab Riaz, Abdullah Shafique, Saud Shakeel, Usman Shinwari, Haris Sohail, Hussain Talat, Imam-ul-Haq, Ali Majid Shah, Khushdil Shah, Yasir Shah, Khalid Usman, Imad Wasim, Mohammad Wasim Jr, Amir Yamin, Muhammad Zahid, Zeeshan Zameer, Muhammad Zeeshan
Papua New Guinea
Norman Vanua
Scotland
Michael Jones, George Munsey, Safyaan Sharif, Michael Leask, Hamza Tahir, Craig Wallace, Mark Watt
South Africa
Chris Benjamin, Faf du Plessis, Pieter Malan, Migael Pretorius, Rilee Rossouw, Shane Dadswell, Marchant de Lange, Imran Tahir
Sri Lanka
Dinesh Chandimal, Prabath Jayasuriya, Ruwantha Kellapotha, Ramesh Mendis, Nisala Gamage, Dushan Hemantha, Lakshan Sandakan
United Arab Emirates
Rahul Bhatia, Aryan Lakra, Vriitya Aravind, Alishan Sharafu
USA
Eligible for retention: Unmukt Chand (Melbourne Renegades)
Other nominees: Andries Gous, Nosthush Kenjige, Ali Khan, Jaskaran Malhotra, Harmeet Singh Baddhan, Karima Gore, Saurabh Netravalkar, Monank Patel, Smit Patel
West Indies
Eligible for retention: Andre Russell (Melbourne Stars)
Other nominees: Joshua Bishop, Carlos Brathwaite, Dwayne Bravo, Johnson Charles, Amrit Dass, Mark Deyal, Dominic Drakes, Fidel Edwards, Kevin Sinclair, Oshane Thomas, Hayden Walsh, Matthew Forde, Chandrapaul Hemraj, Chemar Holder, Akeal Hosein, Joshua James, Rivaldo Clarke Sheldon Cottrell, Evin Lewis, Anderson Phillip, Kieron Pollard, Khary Pierre, Ravi Rampaul, Jeavor Royal, Obed McCoy, Keemo Paul, Sherfane Rutherford, Jayden Seales, Tion Webster, Kesrick Williams, Nyeem Young
Zimbabwe
Elton Chigumbura, Christopher Mpofu, Ryan Burl, Eddie Byrom, Blessing Muzarabani, Tawanda Muyeye, Richard Ngarava
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