I complained yesterday on Twitter that the Champions League is ‘silly’, you see, the problem I have is that it isn’t really a ‘champions’ league, it’s more like an IPL invitational. 4 of the 10 teams in the final draw are from the IPL, all automatically into the ‘main’ draw despite 2 of them having never even been ‘champions’ of the IPL – one of these, the Mumbai Indians, has however won the Champions League, so make of that what you will.
Last night while watching the World Twenty20 an ad came on promoting the return of the Ryobi cup on Fox Sports. The ad brought back childhood memories of sitting on the lounge room floor watching domestic one day cricket, back in the good old days when it was still shown on free to air TV. Then I had a thought…
Like the Stars and Sixers, they’ve managed to keep the core of last years squad – a lot of who have international experience – while at the same time building upon it. They’ve lured Adam Voges back from the Stars, enticed Pat Cummins away from both Sydney teams and picked up Tom Triffitt to replace Luke Ronchi.
Like the Thunder, the Renegades will be almost unrecognisable haven’t changed almost their entire squad. The only big name they’ve re-signed is Aaron Finch. They’ll notice the loss of Hodge and Maxwell – on the whole their batting looks a little light on compared to some other teams. The loss of Nannes and Tait won’t hurt them as much as it might have 3 or 4 years ago, the additions on Rimmington and Darren Pattinson should cover them.
When the 5pm deadline arrived the Thunder had only announced 12 signings. An hour or so later they announced that they’ve got some in the works and have been given an extension to get them finalised. I hope for their sakes that Warner and Gayle are those that are “in the works”.
Phil Hughes withdrew from last year’s tournament (he was originally signed with the Thunder) to focus on ‘fixing’ his batting after being dumped from the test team for a second time, but he’s currently dominating the county scene in the UK, having particular success in the shorter forms of the game, he’s in good touch at the moment, and the Strikers will be hoping he is still in good nick by the time December rolls around.
When week one of contracting began the stories started that Shane Warne was definitely coming back, and was to replace Cameron White as captain. The two weeks of madness have now run their course and Warne isn’t yet a sure thing for BBL|02.
Have retained the core of their title winning squad from last year. They’ve lost Watson to the Heat, and Cummins to the Scorchers – but neither loss should hurt too much, as Cummins didn’t play at all last year, and neither would likely to be available for the entire tournament due to Test/ODI commitments.
Perhaps the least ‘devious’ of all the teams, the only player they’ve poached from interstate is Watson – and technically he’s just returning home. They also only lost one player to a rival team, Michael Neser, but with the return of Ben Cutting and the addition of Kemar Roach the loss means very little.
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.
The inaugural Big Bash League has been pretty successful thus far, especially when you consider the reasonably harsh criticism that was thrown its way in the lead up to the first game last year. Crowds have been good, ratings have been good and most importantly the cricket has been good. It’s all been going so well that the rumours and talk of possible expansion have started already. But, is there a need for expansion?