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Hurricane force

Hobart Hurricanes

Last year: 2nd on ladder (5 wins, 2 losses), lost in Semi-final

Overview

8 re-signed, 7 added, 3 lost, 7 not signed

Big gets

George Bailey, Doug Bollinger

Big losses

Phil Jaques

Possibly limited availability

Ricky Ponting, Ed Cowan

Thoughts

Bailey returns to Tassie after playing for the Stars last year, its not really a surprising move, think more people would have been surprised if he hadn’t returned. The signing of Bollinger on the other hand was surprising, and losing a senior player was just what the Thunder didn’t want. Tim Paine returns after missing all of last season due to injury, and Ben Dunk joins from the Thunder as his backup, this means there is no longer room for Tom Triffit who has gone to the Scorchers (as expected ,given that he’s now contracted with WA for regular domestic cricket).

Ponting has re-signed, but will only play one or two games due to clashes with the Test schedule. Importantly on the batting front the Hurricanes have kept the strong duo of Travis Birt and Owais Shah – they’ll wish they had Jaques back too as he’s in still good form in the UK at the moment. The flying mullet, Rana Naved, hasn’t yet been re-signed by the Hurricanes, he’s been handy for the Taswegians for a few years now. Also as yet unsigned is Ben Hilfenhaus – both he and Rana could still make the Hurricane’s list though as they’ve got a couple more spots to fill before the end of November.

Grade

A Adding Bailey, Bollinger and Paine theoretically make them a better team, their batting was one of the more reliable last year and they’ve kept the core of that with Birt and Shah.