Heat, Hurricanes lock in openers, Strikers poach quick

Fast bowler Brendan Doggett has aligned his KFC BBL and state deals with the Adelaide Strikers luring the right-armer from Sydney on a two-year deal.

Since joining South Australia from Queensland ahead of the 2021-22 domestic season, Doggett has become a mainstay of the of the Redbacks side, helping lift the struggling state off the bottom of the Sheffield Shield table and qualify for the Marsh One-Day Cup final last season.

He's spent the past four Big Bash campaigns at the Sydney Thunder where he collected 17 wickets from 26 games following 15 appearances for 23 wickets with Brisbane Heat in BBL|07 and BBL|08.

The 29-year-old is the club's third new recruit ahead of BBL|13, joining former Hobart Hurricanes batter D'Arcy Short and former Brisbane Heat quick James Bazley at the Strikers, where he will help form the backbone of a pace attack also featuring state teammates Wes Agar and Henry Thornton.

"South Australia is home now so to be able to stay here for 12 months of the year with my young family is great," Doggett said.

"It's exciting to join a group with a lot of players and staff that I am familiar with, as well as getting to play more at a packed Adelaide Oval."

Adelaide Strikers BBL|13 squad (so far): Wes Agar, James Bazley, Cameron Boyce, Alex Carey, Brendan Doggett, Travis Head, Henry Hunt, Thomas Kelly, Ben Manenti, D'Arcy Short, Matt Short, Henry Thorton, Jake Weatherald

While they may have lost Bazley ahead of the new campaign, the Heat have secured the services of breakout big-hitters Josh Brown and Georgia Voll for another summer with the openers both signing one-year extensions.

Brown has spent the winter playing cricket in Darwin, where he slammed an incredible 34-ball 117 for Premier Cricket side Nightcliff.

The 29-year-old cricket bat-maker was signed as a local replacement player last season to cover the loss of the Heat's Test stars Usman Khawaja and Marnus Labuschagne and immediately set the tournament alight with a blistering 23-ball 62 in just his second game before finishing the tournament with the second most sixes (20).

"It's just been absolutely crazy, I was working full-time 12 months ago," Brown said.

"I've enjoyed the winter working and playing cricket and I'm thrilled to get back into some T20 Max with Norths over the next few weeks."

Brisbane Heat BBL|13 squad (so far): Xavier Bartlett, Josh Brown, Max Bryant, Spencer Johnson, Usman Khawaja, Matthew Kuhnemann, Marnus Labuschagne, Michael Neser, Jimmy Peirson, Will Prestwidge, Matthew Renshaw, Mitch Swepson

 

Brisbane Heat WBBL|09 squad (so far): Nicola Hancock, Grace Harris, Laura Harris, Mikayla Hinkley, Ellie Johnston, Jess Jonassen, Charli Knott, Grace Parsons, Georgia Redmayne, Courtney Sippel, Georgia Voll

Another opener to put pen to paper this week was Hobart Hurricanes' Caleb Jewell who has signed a two-year extension that will keep him at the club until at least 2026.

The left-hander – who is in the Australia A four-day squad for next week's 'A' series against New Zealand in Queensland – was left out of the Hurricanes' XI for the first three matches of BBL|12 before finishing as the club's third-leading run-scorer of the season with 289 at a strike-rate of 144.5 across 11 innings.

"We feel that Caleb is very much a future Australian representative, potentially across multiple formats of the game, so to secure his services long-term for the Hurricanes is definitely a positive for us," head coach Jeff Vaughan said.

Hobart Hurricanes BBL|13 squad (so far): Iain Carlisle, Tim David, Paddy Dooley, Nathan Ellis, Peter Hatzoglou, Caleb Jewell, Ben McDermott, Riley Meredith, Mitch Owen, Billy Stanlake, Matthew Wade, Mac Wright

And Sydney Thunder have strengthened their coaching ranks across for both WBBL|09 and BBL|13 with former Australian representatives Michael Klinger and Dan Christian signing on as assistants.

Former Melbourne Renegades BBL head coach Klinger – currently Cricket NSW's Head of T20 Male Cricket – will join Thunder's WBBL head coach Lisa Keightley and fellow assistant Sarah Aley, while Christian steps into the coaching ranks after a decorated 409-game T20 career alongside BBL head coach Trevor Bayliss and assistant Shawn Bradstreet.