BBL finalists call for rules overhaul after Smith saga

Both KFC BBL|11 finalists have called on Cricket Australia to streamline the process to get Australia’s best players featuring for their T20 teams after Steve Smith was barred from featuring for the Sydney Sixers.

After the rigmarole of the past week trying to get Sydney Sixers foundation player and Australian vice-captain Smith back in the side for the finals, club captain Moises Henriques believes the contracting rules for Australia’s leading internationals are in need of an overhaul.

It’s a view shared by Perth Scorchers coach Adam Voges, who led his side to a fourth BBL title on Friday evening.

At domestic level for the Marsh Sheffield Shield and One-Day Cup, nationally contracted players sit outside a state's salary cap, whereas in the Big Bash Australian players must be included in the 18-player squad.

"It's been an issue for a number of years now where you're expected to carry the Australian players on a list in order to hope that they are available for finals," Voges said.

"There's got to be a better system, whether they are players that are aligned to a club and then get paid out of the salary cap if they're available.

"I'm sure there's creative people who are smarter than me that can come up with ways so that we can get the best players playing and ultimately that's what we want."

Henriques said the BBL competition was constantly changing the rules so he was sure they would look at it.

"There was a shift in the rules with three weeks to go in the tournament when they made this COVID replacement pool so I can't see why they can't shift the rules anytime," he said.

"They changed the rules two years ago when they brought in the three new rules (Power Surge, X-factors and Bash Boost point) – there's always changes of rules so I'm sure there will be (again) at some stage."

The Sixers had made an application to contract Smith before the finals last week, when he suddenly became available with the New Zealand ODI series postponed.

However, that was dismissed by Cricket Australia and the clubs, after it was agreed mid-season new players could only come from the replacement pool set to deal with COVID-19 outbreaks.

"Steve Smith wasn’t on the Sixers list. They’ve looked to bring him in as a replacement player. We have some quite specific rules around that, he didn’t fit those rules or that criteria as the rules are presented," league boss Alistair Dobson said.

The Sixers were forced to use replacement players Nick Bertus, Justin Avendano and Jay Lenton after they literally ran out of batters through injury and COVID-19, falling short at the final hurdle last night in what would have been a remarkable three-peat had they pulled it off.

With Henriques and veteran tweaker Steve O'Keefe both playing through calf injuries, and Daniel Hughes suiting up despite a significant ankle injury, the Sixers lost opening batters Josh Philippe, Jack Edwards and his brother Mickey to COVID-19 in the final week of the tournament.

Jordan Silk also went down with an ankle injury, and their international stars – James Vince, Tom Curran, Chris Jordan and Shadab Khan - had previously departed either due to national duties or injury.

On top of that, Ben Manenti only played one game because of a neck stress fracture and Jackson Bird missed the first half of the season with an Achilles injury.

Despite the setbacks, Henriques said they still had a chance to win their third consecutive Big Bash title and only had themselves to blame.

"Tonight's about the Scorchers winning the competition," the 34-year-old said after the 79-run loss.

"The game was here tonight to be won, we had an opportunity to win it, we got ourselves into a really good position.

"Tonight didn't go our way and to be fair throughout the season the Scorchers had our measure.

"Perth's been fantastic all year and again they've outplayed us, so they absolutely deserve this without any doubt in my mind."

Henriques said the 104-run partnership between the Scorchers' English import Laurie Evans, who played with a broken toe, and his counterpart Ashton Turner was one of the best he'd seen as they resurrected a top order collapse and put Perth back into control of the contest.

"They batted with courage there, that was one of the better partnerships I've seen, considering what they were in and what they ended up getting to," the Sixers skipper said.

"The two guys played really bravely … at 4-25 and instead of trying to rebuild, they actually put the pressure back on us.

"We just weren't good enough tonight … we made another final, we gave ourselves an opportunity to win the competition again, you can't ask for much more than that."