BBL draft: Ricky Ponting says Big Bash League should move to player auction format

Some of the biggest stars on offer missed out in the first BBL draft and Ricky Ponting says Australian cricket should look to India to ensure the event is a long-term solution.

Ricky Ponting was part of the Hobart Hurricanes’ team at the draft.

Ricky Ponting has urged the Big Bash to discard its draft and launch a player auction to avoid a repetition of Sunday’s superstar snubbing.

The Australian cricket great believes upping the ante to a blockbuster auction which includes local domestic players in the bidding frenzy, as well as overseas stars, would reinvigorate the competition and create an even better television product.

It can be revealed a little known handbrake for teams on draft night was the fact that to take a platinum player in the second round would have eaten up $305,000 from a team’s salary cap – as opposed to the first round where it would have only taken out $160,000.

The extra tax was designed to make it fair on all the teams given there was only 12 platinum players on offer, but in reality it made it impossible for teams to take the likes of Andre Russell in round two.

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Ricky Ponting says the BBL should look to the IPL to build on the draft concept.

Ponting said nothing can be done to stop teams from prioritising winning titles over marketing the game, but called on CA administrators to copy the model for the IPL auction – albeit with less cash on offer – and create an even greater buzz.

“It just seemed that an auction would make more sense. When you’ve got a lack of availability for the players, just leave it to the franchises to spend how much they want to spend on these guys that are only there for a short amount of time,” Ponting said.

“Because if you do that, you’ve then got money left to spend at the end when those guys go.

“The current system is that they’re for (a few games) then they’re gone … and you’ve got to be able to have something left over to replenish it with.

“I would actually try and do the IPL model so each team can retain as many as you want – maybe four or six – put the domestic players back into an auction as well and make a big deal about domestic players getting bigger money and moving around and moving teams.”

Ponting said if CA sticks with the draft concept, they should increase the number of platinum players to at least 16, so that there is the option for platinum stars to be picked up at the reduced $160,000 rate in both round one and two.

Ricky Ponting as coach of the Delhi Daredevils in the IPL.

“I just think there wasn’t enough people in the platinum category. And by making it small, by making it 12 that’s why they had to put the second platinum pick up so high (in terms of money out of the cap),” he said.

Ponting – the newly appointed cricketing guru for Hobart – has revealed he went in hard to try and convince David Warner to join the Hurricanes, but the Australian star wanted to stay around his family in Sydney.

Ponting admits it might be almost impossible to convince Australian international stars to join an auction or draft for that reason, and the competition might just need to be satisfied to welcome Test players at whatever club they want to play for.

But for everyone else, including domestic players, Ponting believes an auction concept is the way to go.

“Even from the TV point of view, I think there would be a lot more excitement in viewing an auction and watching teams go at it (and getting outbid), rather than just a draft,” said Ponting.

“And that’s what it’s all about. It’s a TV event as much as anything and I think there could be a lot more created through an auction than just a draft.

“I think each team should have a right to retain a certain amount. As a team and as a franchise you want to keep a core group together.

“ … I think it would be exciting to see the local players move around a bit more as well.

“ … but the more international players we can get into the Big Bash the better off we are all going to be. It’s going to be a better spectacle and the players have a limited time at home. There’s no doubt it’s unfair but at the end of the day you have to think about the players and what they want to do.”