Cricket Australia on Wednesday announced a draft system to attract big overseas players for the 2022 Big Bash League.
BBL has been a great success for Cricket Australia (CA). However, the competition has failed to attract international viewership as major foreign superstars do not participate in the tournament.
There is no Virat Kohli, Babar Azam, or Kagiso Rabada, to name a few. To lure global superstars, Cricket Australia has introduced a new draft system with boosted salaries for overseas players.
The first action taken by Cricket Australia is a new draft system designed to attract the best foreign talents.
The league always lacked foreign talents due to the international tours scheduled from December- January. Therefore, the draft system was much needed, with new South African and UAE T20 leagues coming up around the same time band as BBL.
What is the Draft?
Up until now, BBL teams used to pick their overseas players privately. However, after the introduction of the draft system, teams will gather at a venue on a single day to pick 2 or a maximum of 3 overseas players.
The draft is likely to take place in early August.
Grouped into 4 categories – bronze, silver, gold, and platinum
The overseas players have to nominate themselves for the draft in advance. They will have to choose a category for themselves. It can be bronze, silver, or gold. The BBL will decide on the platinum players.
As per reports, here are the fixed salaries of the players in each category
Platinum – $AUD340,000
Gold – $AUD260,000
Silver – $AUD175,000
Bronze- $AUD100,000.
How does the draft work?
A weighted lottery system determines the draft order. The eight players nominated in the platinum category will be picked first. The team that came last in the BBL 11 will get to choose the first selection. Similarly, all eight teams will have one platinum player.
A similar pattern would for the gold, silver, and bronze category.