Melbourne: New Zealand batting great Ross Taylor, England Test opener Zak Crawley and Pakistan trio of openers Abdullah Shafique, Imam-ul-Haq and leg-spinners Yasir Shah on Wednesday were announced as the latest signings for the inaugural Big Bash League (BBL) draft.
South Africa’s Faf du Plessis, New Zealand’s Trent Boult, England’s Jason Roy, Liam Livingstone, Sam Billings, Chris Jordan and David Willey, West Indies’ Kieron Pollard, Andre Russell and Dwayne Bravo, Pakistan’s Shadab Khan, and Afghanistan’s Rashid Khan are headlining the ‘platinum category’ of players in the first round of the BBL draft.
“It should be a fascinating Draft but a very important one in giving teams the best chance of success in this edition of the BBL. With the calibre of players in this year’s international Draft combined with some of the Aussie test players joining the back end of BBL season, it is set to be one of the biggest yet,” said Michael Hussey, former Australia cricketer who will be one of the hosts of the BBL draft.
The league confirmed that with the new joinees for the draft, the final list of the player draft stands at 332 nominees from 20 countries which will be broadcast on Sunday.
A total of 28 players in the BBL draft will be eligible for retention by their clubs from last season.
Under the BBL Draft rules, only the 12 platinum players are eligible to be picked in the first round, while platinum or gold level players can be taken in the second round.
“Sunday night’s BBL-12 Draft is the first must-see event of the Big Bash summer. We love the hype, anticipation and speculation the Draft has created throughout the winter months. Now it is over to our Clubs to build their lists from a selection of the best players in the world,” said Alistair Dobson, Cricket Australia’s General Manager, Big Bash Leagues.
–IANS