Leg Buys: Thunder poach back Heat gun, Sixers chase Renegades tweaker and a payday for players
The Thunder has made an early signing play securing a Heat gun while the Sixers are reportedly circling a West Indian star, plus a player payday is on its way, DANIEL CHERNY reports.
The Big Bash League has struck a blow in its battle against rival Twenty20 competitions with the Sydney Thunder securing English blaster Sam Billings on a three-year deal in which he has agreed to play for the whole of each season.
Having long been hamstrung by a lack of availability of Australian Test players during the BBL window, the BBL has over the past couple of years faced a crunch from lucrative leagues in South Africa and the UAE, with a raft of top overseas players departing the Big Bash midway through the competition to play in those other tournaments.
In response, Cricket Australia loosened rules around its two-year-old BBL overseas player draft, establishing a pre-draft mechanism for clubs to sign non-Australian players for up to three years. Any commitments for the 2025-26 and 2026-27 campaigns had to include undertakings to be available for the whole season, ruling them out of the rival leagues in those years.
Wicketkeeper-batter Billings had been among the overseas players to depart the competition mid-season earlier in 2024, when he had been on the books of the Brisbane Heat. Billings left for the UAE, where he captained the Dubai Capitals in the final of the ILT20 league. The Heat withstood the departure of Billings and New Zealander Colin Munro to claim its first BBL title in 11 years.
Billings, who turns 33 on Saturday, has this time committed to the Thunder, where he previously spent two seasons before two campaigns with Brisbane.
The gloveman, who has played for England in all three formats, has an affinity with Western Sydney, playing grade cricket for Penrith in 2013-14.
Billings is the first BBL signing to be confirmed under the new provisions. The Sydney Sixers unveiled NZ spinning all-rounder Amelia Kerr as a key acquisition earlier in the week, poaching her from the Heat.
The Sixers are also on the hunt for spin in their men’s department following the retirement of veteran left-armer Steve O’Keefe. Sources have confirmed the Sixers have made a play for West Indian gun Akeal Hosein, who shone with 5-11 against Uganda over the weekend at the T20 World Cup.
Hosein, 31, has starred across stints for the Melbourne Renegades in recent summers but also has interest from the UAE league. He has committed to play for the Cricket NSW-aligned Washington Freedom in the US Major League Cricket competition that follows the World Cup.
The Melbourne Stars have shown interest in luring Sixers all-rounder Tom Curran after the Englishman’s turbulent season last Summer during which he was suspended for umpire intimidation.
Clubs can only sign one player across each competition ahead of the draft. The Hobart Hurricanes have secured pick one in the WBBL draft, with CA expected to release results of the men’s lottery in coming days.
PLAYER PAYDAY
Cricket’s global player union has announced a new name as it celebrates a new revenue share agreement with the ICC.
After a quarter of a century, the Federation of International Cricketers’ Associations (FICA) will now be known as the World Cricketers’ Association.
Having just returned to Adelaide from meeting during the World Cup, union chief Tom Moffat told this masthead that he was pleased to report a breakthrough deal with the ICC.
“It’s great to get new player squad terms agreed prior to the T20 World Cup, after a lengthy process. They include better and clearer terms for players in ICC events, which are now annual, and an agreed prize money pool built on sharing revenue, and a gender equity model,” Moffat said.
“We’ve just been in the US and Caribbean where we have updated the men’s international players and sought their views on their priorities over the next period. The players are at the coal face of significant changes in our sport. Ensuring they have a say on decisions at global level that impact them is critical.”
The newly rebranded WCA has also coined a medal to honour former Australian Test spinner Tim May, a pioneer in the fight for cricketers’ rights.
May and Englishman Richard Bevan are inaugural recipients of the award.
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