Leg Buys: Peter Siddle is 40 years-old and has just signed a BBL deal to return to the Melbourne Stars
Peter Siddle’s 20 year professional cricket career shows no signs of slowing down with the veteran snagging the final BBL list spot at the Melbourne Stars in a return over 12 years in the making.
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Forty-year-old Peter Siddle is set to fill the final spot on the list of the Melbourne Stars, returning to the club after more than a dozen years.
The Stars, along with reigning champions Brisbane Heat, had been one of two Big Bash League clubs to keep a vacancy with the season little more than a fortnight away.
It’s understood they have chosen to sign the ex-Test paceman in another remarkable chapter of his two-decade-long professional career.
Siddle, who turned 40 on Monday, was on the Stars’ list in the first season of the BBL but did not play a game because of his Australian commitments at the time.
He walked away from the competition the following season before joining cross-town rivals the Melbourne Renegades, where he had two stints that flanked a five-year stretch with the Adelaide Strikers.
The indefatigable quick is in the final season of a two-year deal with Victoria after spending three years in Tasmania. He has confirmed publicly that this will be his final season of domestic cricket as he moves into a coaching position, having already played a key mentoring role with the Vics’ younger quicks.
Even at his age, Siddle has remained a strong performer this season for Victoria in both the one-day cup and Sheffield Shield.
Siddle will supplement a Stars pace battery already including Joel Paris, Mark Steketee and Brody Couch. Scott Boland is also listed with the club although doubts remain over his availability because of commitments with the national side. Beau Webster’s call-up to the Test squad could also affect the Stars.
On a Women’s Big Bash League front, the Stars are under threat of losing all-rounder Tess Flintoff, who is uncontracted heading into the league’s player movement window next week. Flintoff is being linked by industry sources to the Hobart Hurricanes.
Aussie international quick Kim Garth is also without a WBBL deal for next season.
The Stars parted ways with coach Jonathan Batty during the week after finishing bottom of the league.
HOW WBBL CONTRACT CHANGES HAS STRIKERS IN STRIFE
After tumbling from the top of the tree this season, the Adelaide Strikers are vulnerable heading into the post-season Women’s Big Bash League player movement window.
Cricket Australia earlier this month announced reforms to their Big Bash signing rules, bringing forward the longstanding embargo periods to the end of the regular season before allowing for a 10-day spree the day after the respective competitions’ finals in which out-of-contract players can be poached by a rival club but cannot re-sign with their current team.
The measures were put in place to promote player movement in the immediate aftermath of the season amid frustrations about long-planned moves that had ended up falling over because of what essentially amounted to cooling off periods. The Melbourne Stars’ foiled play to land Brisbane Heat spinner Matt Kuhnemann in the men’s competition is perhaps the most prominent example.
Under the new rules, WBBL clubs can only enter the window with eight players contracted for next season, and must finish the 10-day period with no more than 10 players allowed to sign before the embargo period is lifted completely at an unspecified date flagged for March next year.
The upshot is that the Strikers - by dint of signing their star core including Darcie Brown, Megan Schutt, Amanda-Jade Wellington and Tahlia McGrath for contracts that include next season - are both tight for pre-window spots and salary cap space according to industry sources.
Among those left without a deal when the embargo period began is veteran wicketkeeper Bridget Patterson.
Vying for a third straight WBBL crown, the Strikers barely fired a shot this season, finishing second-bottom on the table ahead of only the Melbourne Stars. Two of the Strikers’ three wins came late in the season when they were already out of the running.
Having surged to the top of the table and booked a home decider on Sunday, the Melbourne Renegades have moved to re-sign Courtney Webb who was one of the league’s top-10 run-scorers across the regular season.
Former Australian all-rounder Nicola Carey is poised to remain with the Hobart Hurricanes, who also made the finals.
Fellow finalists Sydney Thunder have announced contract extensions for skipper Phoebe Litchfield as well as Sam Bates, Hannah Darlington and Anika Learoyd.
BOOST FOR YOUNG GUNS
The new embargo period rules were one of several amendments made to the memorandum of understanding between Cricket Australia and the Australian Cricketers Association.
The changes are mostly minor although there has been a noteworthy victory for some of the game’s emerging stars.
Under MOU rules, non-contracted players can earn upgrades to state deals if they play enough games, with Sheffield Shield, one-day cup and Women’s National Cricket League match appearances all allowing players to accrue points to reach a threshold.
Among the handful of alterations made to the MOU is a provision whereby uncontracted players who are unavailable to play for their respective states because they are on national under-19 duties will still be given points in absentia provided they were in their state XI for the most recent match in a particular format before becoming unavailable.
Affected players will also now receive state match fees.
Players have also been given a one per cent uptick in their share of revenue after agreeing for the introduction of the controversial women’s T20 Spring Challenge competition.
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Originally published as Leg Buys: Peter Siddle is 40 years-old and has just signed a BBL deal to return to the Melbourne Stars
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