Clubs opt for flexibility to polish up rough draft

List flexibility has trumped draft picks ahead of the 2023-24 men's and women's Big Bash seasons with multiple clubs making use of league contracting rules to pass on a third selection and negotiate with players directly.

Only Sydney Thunder in the inaugural Weber WBBL Draft used the maximum amount of three picks, with the remaining clubs set to make use of a 'direct nominations' mechanism unique to the women's draft where overseas players can bypass the draft and negotiate directly with a club of their choosing.

Six players took this option in the first WBBL Draft with England opener Sophia Dunkley set to join Melbourne Stars, England wicketkeeper-batter Amy Jones linked to Perth Scorchers and New Zealand allrounder Suzie Bates likely to sign with the Sydney Sixers for the upcoming season.

Of the remaining three direct nominations, South Africa pair Mignon du Preez and Lizelle Lee both played with the Hobart Hurricanes last season, with Lee also recently a teammate of their second-round pick Bryony Smith in the Hundred and a regular fixture of the Tasmanian Tigers top-order in 2022-23.

England opener Tammy Beaumont – who represented the Thunder for the past three seasons – rounds out the group who bypassed the draft, but she may need to find a new WBBL team after the western Sydney club secured their three primary overseas players in the draft. Beaumont previously played for Adelaide Strikers in WBBL|02 and WBBL|03, and the Renegades in WBBL|05.

Both women's and men's Big Bash clubs are also permitted to sign overseas replacement players should one of their primary internationals become unavailable due to injury, national duty or playing commitments in another T20 league.

"We had the first pick in round one and two and the second in round three, so signing someone outside of the draft didn't really make sense to us when we still had quality players available," Thunder head coach Lisa Keightley told cricket.com.au after the draft.

Australia great and new Sydney Sixers head Rachael Haynes said the direct signing concept was well intentioned and gave teams the flexibility to make plans after the draft had finished.

"There's always a plan going into a draft, but you obviously never know where exactly you're going to land in terms of the player that you do get, so having that flexibility to perhaps address an imbalance post-draft is important," she told cricket.com.au.

Meanwhile, with every club required to make a minimum of two selections in the KFC BBL|13 Draft, the Scorchers, Thunder and Melbourne Renegades raised eyebrows by passing twice during their four selections and ending the draft with only two overseas players.

It was the first time clubs had only drafted two players after all eight teams picked three times in the inaugural event last year.

While there is no direct nomination rule in place for the BBL, clubs are now permitted to sign a third primary overseas player with approval from the league's Technical Committee, provided that player nominated for the draft and wasn't selected. This option is also available to WBBL teams.

Players contracted under this mechanism negotiate their salary for the season directly with the club.

While not strictly a loophole, it allows a club like the Scorchers – who held the 32nd and final pick in the BBL|13 Draft – to avoid a salary cap squeeze by paying their third overseas player less than the bronze tier amount of $100,000.

The five-time champions have the strongest domestic list of the eight men's Big Bash clubs and also passed in the platinum round, as they did in the inaugural BBL Draft last year.

Their selection of Zak Crawley in the second round in the gold tier, and Laurie Evans in round three as a silver tier means the club spent just $500,000 on two internationals out of the club's $3m 'total player payment pool'.

"We're only in September now, there's a couple of months before we get going so I think teams like the idea of being able to have a little bit of flexibility in the lead up (to the season)," Scorchers head coach Adam Voges said.

"Still having to take two players (in the draft) is important but that little bit of extra flexibility helps.

"We think we've got enough cover in terms of domestic and local fast bowlers, but injuries happen, Aussie selection happens, and I think that's probably the biggest thing that will dictate that third spot is who's in the Test squad and how we get affected by that."

Hurricanes Head of Strategy Ricky Ponting said he believed signing a third overseas player outside the draft gave rivals a glimpse of how some clubs were saving their money for the second half of BBL|13 to cover the departure of their bigger names due to international duty or other domestic T20 leagues.

Melbourne Renegades general manager James Rosengarten guaranteed they would have three overseas players in their starting XI come their first game of the BBL|13 season in December despite only drafting two – Quinton de Kock and Mujeeb Ur Rahman – on Sunday night.

"During the draft you're restricted by categories and now all players go into a free agency pool and we're free to speak to them," Rosengarten said.

"The plan before (the draft) was to get Quinton, get Mujeeb and then pass those final picks and directly sign the player that we wanted."

On the WBBL side, Rosengarten revealed they had an arrangement with one of the direct nominations who had previously played for the club and were eager to announce their third overseas player as soon as possible.