BBL 12: Ponting, Khawaja point out BBL concerns due to rising T20 leagues

• Ponting and Khawaja warn BBL could face huge pressure.
• BBL will be staged between Dec 13 and Feb 4.
• The league franchises have practised recruiting low-profile players for longer retentions.

BBL 12: According to Ricky Ponting and Usman Khawaja, Cricket Australia is under more pressure than ever to entice big-name overseas talent to the BBL 12 because of the large sums of money that might be on offer in the new South Africa and UAE T20 leagues.

Ponting is the Hobart Hurricanes’ head of strategy, his first BBL team post after 11 years of playing and commentating. Jeff Vaughan was named head coach for the following three years, together with James Hopes and Darren Berry.

Ponting warned that the BBL may have trouble luring the best players because to January overlaps with the new South Africa T20 competition and the IPL.

Also Read

BBL 11: Shadab Khan will use separate dressing room under Big Bash League biosecurity protocols

BBL 11: Pakistan white-ball vice-captain Shadab Khan is all set to make...

Time to go private

Khawaja was even more open about the danger posed by international events. He attended this week’s Australian Cricketers’ Association delegates meeting in Melbourne, where CA CEO Nick Hockley and BBL head Alistair Dobson discussed the forthcoming season and draught. Khawaja reiterated his view that the competition must seek private investment.

In the BBL 12 will run from December 13 to February 4, and overseas players will be allowed to choose their desired salary.

BBL clubs have recruited lower-tier overseas players in the past to have them available for the whole season, like Perth Scorchers’ Colin Munro and Laurie Evans last year.

Homegrown names

Multi-format players, some of whom do not have clubs, are slated to be available for the last three weeks after the postponed ODI series with South Africa. The issue of whether they are required to play and for whom they play must be resolved in the near future. David Warner has not participated in the tournament since 2013, and Mitchell Starc has already stated that he will be resting this year.

“I don’t think players would like to be told where they’re playing,” Ponting said. “I think they would want to have the choice. I know that was one of the things we were talking about last night is, if there is a chance for us to be able to get hold of some of the guys that are going to have quite a decent break now through the middle of this tournament, so we threw a few names around there.

“This has been spoken about for a long time now as well. How do we get the Australian players back into BBL but more importantly, if we do, how are they remunerated, and what teams are they associated with? And I think it’s coming to the point now…with these other tournaments around the world that more and more attention needs to be paid to that for the BBL’s sake.

“I think there’s a chance attracting the best overseas talent here is probably going to get harder and harder as we’ve seen already the last three or four seasons. But the most important thing is getting our best Australian players when at all available to come and play in the BBL.”

Also Read

Australian great Ricky Ponting signs to Big Bash in off-field role

Ricky Ponting has signed a three-year deal with the Tasmanian Hurricanes. The...