Wonder spinner Lloyd Pope set to be snapped up by interstate BBL franchise as Sydney Sixers circle
HAVING had promising wrist-spinner Tom O’Connell poached by Victoria, South Australian cricket faces losing record-breaking tweaker Lloyd Pope this summer.
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HAVING had promising wrist-spinner Tom O’Connell poached by Victoria, South Australian cricket faces losing record-breaking tweaker Lloyd Pope.
Adelaide Strikers’ rival BBL franchises — headlined by Sydney Sixers — are head hunting leg-spinner Pope hot on the heels of his 7/87 for South Australia against Queensland on Thursday in Adelaide.
BBL champion Adelaide is powerless to prevent Pope — now a marketer’s dream — being signed to a lucrative, long-term deal interstate.
“We have Rashid Khan the best T20 player in the world and full squad of 18. We rewarded players on the back of winning the trophy last season. Liam O’Connor came into the final side when Rashid went and did a really good job for us,” SACA high performance manager Tim Nielsen told The Advertiser.
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“I think Pope has the skill set to be pretty successful in T20 cricket but unfortunately in the short term it is unlikely he will be with the Strikers.”
Pope would be a tempting option for the Sixers with paceman John Hastings in doubt for health reasons while off-spinner Nathan Lyon will have heavy one-day and Test commitments.
Leg-spinners Rashid, Pakistan’s Shadab Khan, New Zealand’s former Striker Ish Sodhi, India’s Yuzvendra Chahal and another Kiwi Mitchell Santner fill the top five ICC T20 bowler rankings.
Pope, like Rashid, enjoys impressive accuracy for a young leg-spinner as shown taking 8/35 against England in the under-19 World Cup at Queenstown in January. The Kensington kid rips his wrong’un with a high vertical action that is suited to T20 as opposed to a leggie who relies on stock ball turn.
Nielsen says the worst case scenario has Pope returning to Adelaide Strikers after several seasons but would love the Redbacks prodigy to do an T20 apprenticeship under Jason Gillespie.
“Hopefully if Popey does go somewhere else it won’t be on a long term deal. When we have space we can certainly talk about it. We would love him in our system learning from Jason Gillespie and Rashid Khan,” said Nielsen.
“Our greatest challenge is to make sure he has the development he needs with South Australia and not everything is about taking a seven-for.
“He is a resilient kid, will play well wherever it is. There are a lot of positives there.”
The Strikers can only secure Pope’s services as an injury cover with premier tweaker Rashid and O’Connor contracted. Impressive wrist spinner O’Connell also a gun fielder and handy batsman, was snapped up by Victoria this season knowing the 17-year-old was behind Adam Zampa and Pope in the leg-spin queue at Adelaide Oval.
Pope, 18, became the youngest bowler to take seven wickets in a Sheffield Shield innings against the Bulls on Thursday at Adelaide Oval.
Pope’s stealth wrong’un deceived three Bulls including former Test opener Joe Burns (63) in the second session on Thursday and would be a potent Twenty20 weapon.
Pope is playing just his second first-class game but attributes the development of his wrong’un and proficiency in white ball cricket to watching YouTube videos of Afghanistan wizard.
“I loved watching him (Rashid) on TV and that (7/18) performance against the West Indies was some of the stuff I loved watching as a kid,” Pope told The Advertiser.
“The way he bowled so quickly and getting elements of his game into my white ball cricket has helped me as well.
“White ball cricket keeps you in the moment every ball, the batters are trying to hit you for six every ball.”
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