Leadership key in Scorchers' Devine retention

Marizanne Kapp or Sophie Devine? Two world-class allrounders, and the Perth Scorchers were destined to lose one in what was the toughest decision of both Big Bash drafts.

In the end it came down to leadership and with each club allowed only one retention pick, the Scorchers agonisingly had to let South African Kapp slip through after Sydney Thunder called her name with the first pick of the inaugural Weber WBBL Draft.

Both Devine – who has been with Perth since WBBL|06 – and Kapp – who represented the club for the past two seasons – were eligible to be retained by the Scorchers in the WBBL|09 Draft after helping spearhead their maiden women's title in WBBL|07, with the latter named player of the final.

But as two former world No.1-ranked allrounders, one with the third-most WBBL runs of all time in Devine (3,258), and the other with the fourth-most WBBL wickets in Kapp (114), the Scorchers never had a realistic chance of keeping both.

And Thunder head coach Lisa Keightley revealed that was indeed the case, telling cricket.com.au after the draft that had the Scorchers retained Kapp they would have used the next pick on Devine.

"We were going Devine if we missed out so the Scorchers would have copped it either way, but we would have been happy with both," Keightley said.

"The Scorchers had a really hard decision, I think they kept their captain and a leader and someone who's really been at the club for a while, so I was pretty confident that we'd probably get Kapp."

Passing on Kapp proved to be the right call with the Scorchers then forced to use their retention pick with the second selection of Sunday's draft after the Renegades tried to poach the New Zealand captain.

"(It's been) incredibly difficult and to be honest, we flipped from one to the other for a period of time," Scorchers head coach Becky Grundy said following the draft.

"Two world-class players, two players who helped us win our first championship but ultimately it came down to leadership and the captaincy, it's such a pivotal role in T20 cricket in particular, we see that with (Scorchers men's captain) Ashton Turner and that's ultimately what split the two."

Grundy said it was "really sad" to lose Kapp and she had reached out to the 33-year-old as soon as the pick went through on Sunday.

"The beauty of it is that you have to back in your domestic players, and I feel like we've built a really good list with our domestic players," she added.

"We probably saw that last year, there was almost an over-reliance on our overseas players. We feel that we've got that cover with the ball and also in the middle- to lower-order too (this season)."

Keightley, meanwhile, said Kapp, and their second-round pick – England captain Heather Knight – provided balance to her Thunder line-up.

"It's really good for us as a club because we've got some really talented young players and we'll be able to put those talented young players around some really experienced internationals," she said.

"Hopefully that will help clarity out in the middle and for the young players to step up so in years two and three (of the draft) we're looking for a different skill set."

The Thunder then added gun Ashes quick Lauren Bell with their third-round pick and were the only WBBL club to use their full allotment of three picks in the women's draft after the other seven teams opted to pass twice and sign a third primary overseas player after the completion of the draft.

"For us with pick three it was the best available player, batter or bowler, and we thought out of the batting that was left and the bowling, Lauren was the best quality player so we went with the extra bowler this season," Keightley explained.

"(She's a) fast bowler who's really good in the Powerplay and (adds) depth, so our bowling attack looks strong. With our batting, we're relying on experience and some very talented young players to give them opportunity to see what they can do."

With the other big retention play in the WBBL Draft, Melbourne Stars attempted to poach Proteas young gun Laura Wolvaardt with a platinum level selection in round two after Adelaide Strikers opted to pass in the first round.

There was speculation the Strikers wouldn't be able to afford a $110,000 platinum salary in their $732,000 'total player payments pool' with Australian representatives Darcie Brown, Tahlia McGrath, Megan Schutt and Amanda-Jade Wellington on the books.

But Strikers head coach Luke Williams activated their retention rights, with the Stars ploy forcing them to fork out an extra $20,000 this season to keep the 24-year-old opener who was their top run-scorer last season.

"She's been a pivotal park of our team for three years now, fantastic on-field and just impressive off the field and we're delighted Laura will be back with us," he said.