BBL 2022/23: CA set to bring Steve Smith back to BBL, Glenn Maxwell eyes surprise injury return
Steve Smith is on the verge of a BBL comeback with Cricket Australia set to bring him back for the Sydney Sixers and Glenn Maxwell is yet to be ruled out for this season.
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Cricket Australia is on the verge of finalising the return of Steve Smith to the Big Bash and booking in a TV ratings showdown against David Warner on January 21 at the SCG.
No deal has been rubber stamped yet, but News Corp understands it is all but certain to happen, with talks at the pointy end.
An announcement could be made within days about Smith linking back with his Sydney Sixers.
It is a massive boost for the game, after all appeared lost for months.
Cricket Australia has come to the party with an expected six-figure marketing deal for Smith that it was previously baulking at, and it sets up a salivating Sydney derby blockbuster between the Sixers and David Warner’s Thunder on January 21 which could break viewership records for Fox Cricket and Channel 7.
CA chief executive Nick Hockley has driven the process to get an 11th hour deal sorted before the competition starts next week, after previously securing Warner and Chris Lynn in delicate situations.
Cricket NSW said talks were progressing, but no deal has been signed off on yet.
“Cricket NSW and the Sydney Sixers have recently talked with Steve Smith, via his management, about a return to the club as a replacement player during BBL|12,” said a statement from Cricket NSW.
“Talks with Smith’s management have been extremely positive, and the Sixers are completing due process with Cricket Australia and the BBL.
“Currently we are waiting for Cricket Australia to complete a number of steps to ensure the process can reach the desired outcome for all Sixers and BBL fans.”
Meanwhile, a 23-year-old Victorian Premier Cricket batter has been given the task of stepping into the biggest shoes in the Big Bash League.
Tom Rogers, a prolific run scorer from Ringwood who has been on the fringes of the Victorian state team, has signed with the Melbourne Stars as a replacement player for the injured Glenn Maxwell.
But in an exciting development for Cricket Australia officials, Maxwell is yet to be ruled out of the tournament altogether despite breaking his leg last month.
Maxwell, 34, among the biggest draw cards in the competition, is still targeting a return late in the season, which would also potentially keep alive his hopes of touring India with the Australian Test side early next year.
In the meantime, his place in the Stars’ squad has been taken by left-handed batter Rogers, who is no stranger to the Stars after filling in with the side at the start of the year when the club was stricken by a glut of positive Covid-19 cases.
Opening the batting, Rogers made 32 against the Perth Scorchers but it proved to be his only appearance for the season, as he too picked up Covid-19.
But he has remained thereabouts in Victorian considerations, playing for the state second XI in recent weeks.
Adam Zampa was earlier this week revealed as the Stars’ fill-in captain in Maxwell’s absence.
The Stars’ contest the season opener against Sydney Thunder in Canberra on Tuesday night.
Maxwell told cricket.com.au last month that he conceded the injury could rule him out of the India tour.
“There’s a time limit on when they’re going to announce that squad to India and to be fair, there’s a high chance that I won’t make it,” he said.
“They’re obviously going to have to see me playing cricket and they’re obviously going to have to take a big risk if they do take me.
“But I think that’s probably why I don’t want to sort of set any dates or timelines of when I can get back. I would dearly love to be okay for that but I’m a slave to how my body recovers and how quickly I can I suppose get the strength back into it and then get back playing cricket again.”
THUNDER APOLOGISES FOR BIZARRE BBL WARNER CAPTAINCY FAIL
Sydney Thunder has apologised to David Warner for failing to inform him of its decision to lock in a captain.
But the extra layer of angst won’t impact the superstar’s commitment to play the Big Bash League.
As Warner dealt with the anguish of feeling a review into his lifetime leadership ban had derailed into a “public lynching”, the opener was further angered to be kept out of the loop on his BBL club’s decision this week to publicly announce Jason Sangha as Thunder captain.
Cricket NSW and the Thunder have been, and remain, firmly in Warner’s corner, and helped drive the push for Cricket Australia to review the ban.
But privately they have put their hand up over the communication breakdown, admitting they got it wrong in not telling him of their decision a week out from the planned date of his hearing and start of the BBL season.
It’s understood the Thunder informed last year’s captain Chris Green, but not Warner.
Sangha has for months, at least privately, been the Thunder’s intended captain – chiefly because he is playing the entire season, and Warner would only be coming in for a few games at the back end after he finishes his Test duties.
But not informing Warner is a bizarre oversight given the Thunder had been so strongly backing him in his bid, which has spanned months from the moment in late August when Cricket NSW chief Lee Germon first wrote to the CA board asking for an answer on his leadership status.
The Thunder and their coach Trevor Bayliss wanted Warner cleared of his leadership ban so he could assist Sangha and skipper the side in the event of injury or other unexpected circumstances during the season.
The Thunder were seemingly always going with Sangha, but were trying to show Warner procedural fairness in trying to let the review process take its course, and were badly let down by the ridiculous delay in Cricket Australia’s action on the issue.
Thunder sources say Germon has attempted to contact Warner to personally express his regret at the oversight, but as yet hasn’t reached him.
Despite Warner’s fury at the way an independent panel has handled the review, sparking his explosive decision to withdraw from the process on Wednesday, News Corp understands the superstar remains committed to his two-year contract at the Thunder and will line up this summer.
Warner is the biggest marquee signing the BBL has had in years and a potential Sydney derby clash with Steve Smith on January 21 has been tipped to sell out the SCG and drive television ratings north of a million viewers, should CA convince Smith to sign with the Sydney Sixers.
Talks revived to bring Steve Smith to BBL
Cricket Australia has secretly revived 11th hour talks with Steve Smith in a bid to bring the batting genius into the Big Bash League.
A Saturday night Sydney derby blockbuster on January 21 between David Warner and Smith now beckons as a realistic possibility, with industry insiders confident the superstar match-up would pull a television audience in excess of a million and sell out the SCG if CA can get the deal done.
For months CA has refused to offer Smith a six-figure marketing contract similar to the deal done with Warner, but that stance has softened and News Corp can reveal the two parties are back at the negotiating table.
The complication is the fact the Sydney Sixers on Wednesday announced they’d signed the Edwards brothers Jack and Mickey to their last two roster spots, meaning Smith would now need to be signed on a $2,200 a game fee as a replacement player for England international James Vince who will only play the first half of the tournament.
Sixers sources are adamant they’d already signed the Edwards boys before discovering CA had reopened their productive talks with Smith.
But there is frustration from Cricket Australia executives, who felt the Sixers should have left a spot open for Smith, and are now concerned about rival BBL clubs blowing up like they did last year about Smith’s entry to the competition.
To their credit though, CA privately admits it was a mistake to not overrule the states last year and allow Smith to play, and appreciate the bigger picture of what injecting Smith can do for the competition at a critical point for TV rights.
Television executives Steve Crawley from Fox Sports and James Warburton from Channel 7 last week urged CA to do what it took to get Smith into the BBL.
There is a feeling Smith v Warner could be one of the sporting TV events of the year if it comes off.
Both Cricket Australia and Cricket NSW are desperate to get Smith into the BBL and are now working together, but there is tension over who is to blame for making the process more complicated than it needed to be.
CA bosses including chief executive Nick Hockley are working hard to make the Smith deal happen, having already secured Warner and Chris Lynn to the competition in equally precarious circumstances.
Smith’s hesitance to play the Big Bash this summer has not been based on money necessarily, but on the principle that Cricket Australia was not showing him enough love as a superstar of the game and proven magnet for TV audiences and crowds in Sydney.
CA wouldn’t let him play last year when he was willing to play for match payments, yet this season didn’t feel he was worth the kind of marketing contract used to lure international T20 all-time great Warner to the Sydney Thunder.
Back in September, Cricket NSW chief Lee Germon told News Corp his organisation had exhausted all financial options to sign Smith, but CA were not willing to come to the party because it argued its deal with Warner was a unique case to keep him in Australian cricket amid a poaching threat from the UAE, and did not want to set a precedent of propping up the contracts of multiple players.
It’s not yet known what dollar figures Smith will be paid if he agrees to return to the BBL this summer, but back in September when talks were last active, Cricket NSW was willing to pay Smith a record marketing deal of $100,000 plus another $40,000 in playing contract.
That $40,000 playing contract is now no longer possible because they’ve filled their roster spots.
But $100,000 in marketing from NSW and a similar injection from CA would bring an offer above the $200,000 mark for a handful of matches.
Before the 2019-20 season, the Sixers terminated the contracts of young players Daniel Fallins and Henry Thornton in order to get Smith and Josh Hazlewood in for the back end of the season.
Cricket Australia are asking the question, ‘why can’t the Sixers do the same again this time around?’ But News Corp has been told by Sixers sources that that won’t happen, and Smith would have to come in as a replacement.
Meanwhile, The UK Telegraph has reported Smith is in discussions with county cricket clubs to get vital match practice in English conditions before next year’s Ashes.
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