Cricket Australia insists it has the strongest Big Bash League player pool in competition history despite some of the game’s biggest names being snubbed in overseas draft.
Top talent overlooked in Sunday night’s draft continues to be a moot point, with the likes of platinum players Faf du Plessis, Dwayne Bravo, Jason Roy and Andre Russell not making the cut.
What has become clear is the gap between big names attracting crowds and specialist T20 talent clubs who think they can win titles.
While some big stars weren’t picked by the clubs, Shadab Khan, David Willey, Chris Jordan, Laurie Evans Joe Clarke and Asif Ali were all picked in the first two rounds.
In fact, most of these players are famous match winners in T20 cricket, even though most haven’t caught the attention of the stars in Australia.
CA also mentions Akeal Hosein of the West Indies, the world’s # 6 T20 bowler who was chosen by the Melbourne Renegades but is virtually unknown to most Australians.
BBL boss Alistair Dobson insists the wide availability of Australian international talent meant the competition’s roster was the most marketable at a critical juncture in the tournament’s existence.
“From our point of view, this upcoming BBL season is the strongest ever with this entire group,” Dobson told AAP.
“Rather than looking at the players who weren’t drafted, it’s important to look at those who did.
“Rashid Khan, Liam Livingstone, Trent Boult, represent the crème de la crème of world cricket.
“During the platinum and gold rounds, there are some familiar BBL names.
“It is also important to consider this in the context of the full availability of Australian football superstars and the strong availability of Australian multiformat players, including David Warner.”
In addition to the major underdog platinum players, Sandeep Lamichhanne and Tom Curran were also among those who didn’t make the cut.
Boult, Asif Ali and Rilee Rossouw are the top names chosen for not having had a prominent role in the BBL before.
But organizers are adamant that availability wasn’t as important a factor behind the non-selections as claimed, despite being a major topic of discussion of the night.
Nine of the selected foreign players will be available for the entire tournament, including David Willey, Laurie Evans (both from Perth), Joe Clarke (Melbourne Stars) and Colin de Grandhomme (Adelaide) at platinum and gold levels.
Du Plessis and Russell, who were only available for about half of the games, were overlooked for others with similar start dates.
“The clubs that chose platinum players were comparing apples to apples,” Dobson said.
“Availability was clearly one of the parameters taken into consideration by the clubs.
“(But) the extent to which availability was a reason some players were being overlooked wasn’t necessarily the case when looking at who was selected.”