BBL: Cricket Australia allows BBL clubs to sign players outside their salary cap

From the upcoming edition of the Big Bash League, all franchises will be allowed to sign players outside their regular salary cap. The decision has been taken after the infamous Steve Smith fiasco that took place in the 2021-2022 season. Notably, the cricketer wasn’t allowed to feature in the playoffs for Sydney Sixers as he wasn’t on the playing list because of Australia’s international commitments. However, the series against New Zealand got postponed, but despite that, Smith couldn’t take part for the Sixers.

In order to avoid such a situation, Cricket Australia unveiled a new set of rules on Wednesday, April 26, where the players will be able to sign with individual franchises on a marquee supplementary basis even if they are not expected to be available to play in one particular season. Meanwhile, if the circumstances change in the middle and they become available for selection, the cricketer will be brought back into the full-time roaster and will be allowed to compete.

Meanwhile, it has also been decided that the highest-paid overseas men's player will get $420,000 in the draft, while the female cricketers will command $110,000. On the other hand, franchises will also have to pay their top-six men's earners a minimum of $200,0000 each and top-five female players $50,000 each.

Notably, all the franchises will be allowed to sign as many players as possible (minimum 18) inside the $3 million salary cap. They will also be given a free hand to sign two additional cricketers outside the salary cap on a standardised $50,000 deal. Interestingly, their match fees will only count towards the salary cap if they eventually end up playing for the franchise. Thus, with these new sets of rules, the issues like that of Smith’s will not arise anymore.

Meanwhile, following this, CA hopes that more big-name players will turn up for Big Bash in the upcoming season. Alistair Dobson, the chief of the league, stated that it is their ambition to see almost all of the Australian stars be part of BBL.

“It's always our ambition for as many of those players to be part of the BBL as possible. We hope that the mechanisms will enable clubs to sign players even if they are either unlikely or not available. Because having them around the BBL and ready, if available, is a really important part of the competition for us,” Dobson was quoted as saying by ESPNCricinfo.