‘Egg on their face’: $1.7 million Draft snubs expose Big Bash League problem

Cricket Australia have been left with “egg on their face” after their latest initiative backfired and saw $1.7m worth of talent slip away.

Nic Savage

@nic_savage1

5 min read

August 29, 2022 - 5:34PM

Sports broadcaster Gerard Whateley has branded the inaugural Big Bash League Draft a “disaster” after Cricket Australia lost about $1.7 million worth of talent in one evening.

A quintet of platinum players were brushed by the eight BBL franchises on Sunday, with former South African captain Faf du Plessis and two-time T20 World Cup champion Andre Russell going unpicked.

West Indies greats Dwayne Bravo and Kieron Pollard, along with England dynamo Jason Roy, were also overlooked.

Watch Australia v Zimbabwe. Every ODI Live & Exclusive to Fox Sports on Kayo. New to Kayo? Start your free trial now >

Availability was repeatedly cited as a concern during the Draft – the five snubbed platinum players were expected to leave the competition before the finals to participate in high-paying T20 domestic tournaments in South Africa and the United Arab Emirates.

The BBL clubs subsequently reserved their picks for cricketers who would be available for the entire summer; they weren’t willing to sacrifice $340,000 of their salary cap for a player who would fly out of the country before the finals.

Reigning champions the Perth Scorchers, for example, ignored the high-profile platinum players and retained England batter Laurie Evans for their first pick of the evening.

“We knew that having a batter of his quality available for the whole duration of the Big Bash who is flexible enough to bat anywhere in our top six was really important,” Scorchers coach Adam Voges said.

“It was a really tough one because the list of platinum players was really strong, but we were really fixed in wanting a top-order batter who was available the whole time, and that probably didn‘t present for us in the platinum list.”

Andre Russell of the Stars. Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images

Russell and du Plessis were central to CA’s promotion of the Draft; the latter was reportedly on a marketing deal with the organisation.

But the Draft, which was designed to bring household names into the competition, backfired dramatically on Sunday, with the Big Bash clubs prioritising availability over bums on seats to leave CA red-faced.

“I sat through the BBL Draft last night, the longer it went, the bigger disaster I thought it became,” Whateley told SEN on Monday morning.

“Chronic identity crisis surrounding the BBL vividly played out before us – is it entertainment or is it elite competition?

“Because quite rightly those who were building their teams are in it to win it, but the broadcast was all set up around the entertainment.

“The very first image was Faf du Plessis and the whole conversation revolved around Andre Russell, and it seemed from the second pick onwards, and the longer it went, the more you realised they’re not going to get drafted.

“It feels to me like had there been no draft all of du Plessis, ‘Dre Russ’, Kieron Pollard, Dwayne Bravo, Jason Roy would’ve been here for a few games, but by imposing the draft and the $340,000 guaranteed, they actually cost themselves the big names that they were after.

“Because they were paying Faf to be the marketing guy … I thought, ‘Oh my goodness, that shows you the failure right at the heart of it all’.”

Faf du Plessis of South Africa. Photo by Shaun Botterill/Getty Images

Veteran cricket reporter Robert Craddock revealed that Russell was also on a marketing contract with CA, calling the Draft a “broken system”.

“They didn’t see this coming, Cricket Australia,” he said.

“I didn’t mind that at all. You’ve got a new concept … I don’t think the contracts were overly substantial, but they were there.

“They misread it, particularly with du Plessis, given all the threads of the South African Test summer.

“The moment when I knew that there’s something fundamentally flawed with it was in the reviews last night after it and most clubs said, ‘We got what we want’.

“Well, if you got what you want and you didn’t get du Plessis, Pollard or Russell, who were there for sale, then it’s a broken system, it didn’t work.”

Earlier this year, it was revealed that free-to-air broadcaster Channel 7 had launched Federal Court action against CA in a bid to terminate its TV rights deal.

Seven was adamant the cricketers that featured in last summer’s BBL were not of a high enough quality for the competition to meet the standard provisions stipulated in CA’s TV rights contract.

And with a fresh broadcast deal looming, the loss of du Plessis, Russell, Bravo, Pollard and Roy comes as a huge blow to CA.

“The people in the room last night recruited the names to build successful lists and win, but if you were watching the broadcast, it was all leveraged around the return of the big names to the BBL,” Whateley continued.

“And on that front, they ended up with egg on their face.

“The question is will Phil Salt, Alex Hales, Adam Hose, Liam Livingstone and Colin Munro sell tickets? Will they get you into the stands? I suspect they won’t.

“They’ll make the cricket better and will you follow your team more if they’re winning? And that’s the identity crisis that holds the BBL and has done for years and which I thought played out as graphically as ever in what transpired last night.”

Cricket Australia did a ton of work to get Faf du Plessis, Andre Russell and Kieron Pollard to nominate for the inaugural Big Bash draft. Faf and Pollard did the pre-draft marketing for CA. All left on the shelf, along with Dwayne Bravo. Unlikely we see them in the BBL again.
— Sam Landsberger (@SamLandsberger) August 28, 2022

The Melbourne Renegades secured the services of England’s Liam Livingstone for the upcoming Big Bash League, selecting him as the No. 1 pick.

Adelaide cricket fans breathed a sigh of relief after the Strikers retained Afghanistan spinner Rashid Khan with their first pick, forcing the Melbourne Stars to select New Zealand veteran paceman Trent Boult.

The Brisbane Heat chose England wicketkeeper Sam Billings for their No. 4 pick, with the Sydney Thunder opting not to retain the gloveman and instead poach England paceman David Willey.

Meanwhile, the Hobart Hurricanes, led by former Australian captain Ricky Ponting, walked away from the draft with three Pakistani cricketers on their roster — Shadab Khan, Asif Ali and Faheem Ashraf.

Round 1 Picks

1. Liam Livingstone — Melbourne Renegades

2. Rashid Khan — Adelaide Strikers (retention pick)

3. Trent Boult — Melbourne Stars

4. Sam Billings — Brisbane Heat

5. Chris Jordan — Sydney Sixers

6. Pass — Perth Scorchers

7. David Willey — Sydney Thunder

8. Shadab Khan — Hobart Hurricanes

Round 2 Picks

9. Mujeeb Ur Rahman – Melbourne Renegades

10. Joe Clarke – Melbourne Stars