Draft card: Scorchers shore up top-order and salary cap

Draft picks: Zak Crawley (Gold), Laurie Evans (Silver) 

Draft spend: $500,000 

Total payment pool post-draft: $2.5m of $3m 

Both Zak Crawley and Laurie Evans will fill two of Perth Scorchers' six marquee player spots after being taken with gold ($300,000) and silver ($200,000) selections respectively. Under new contracting rules announced in April – made possible by the new five-year Memorandum of Understanding between CA and the Australian Cricketers' Association – each club's total payments pool for players has increased by almost 58 per cent from $1.9m to $3m for KFC BBL|13. 

A part of that $3m, each BBL club must have a minimum of six players (whether domestic, overseas or CA-contracted) who are paid $200,000 or more per season. The six marquee players at each club must collectively be paid a minimum of $1.7m in BBL|13 with all overseas players taken with a silver selection or higher considered marquees. 

The Scorchers have six squad members currently representing the Australia's white-ball sides in South Africa who would be vying for the club's four remaining marquee spots for BBL|13. State and Big Bash captains Mitch Marsh and Ashton Turner would be frontrunners for two of those spots, while fast bowlers Jhye Richardson, Jason Behrendorff and Andrew Tye proved how valuable they were to the club with 62 wickets between them last season. 

Overseas availability 

Pending international selection, Crawley – who was last week named captain of a second-string England ODI side to face Ireland later this month – is expected to be available for up to nine games before linking up with England Test squad for their five-match tour of India beginning on January 25. England also has ODI and T20 series in the Caribbean in December which would also rule him out of the start of BBL|13 if selected. 

Evans is expected to be available for the home-and-away season but will also miss the end of the tournament when he joins Abu Dhabi Knight Riders in the UAE league. The club will be able to sign overseas replacement players for when the English pair are unavailable at the start or end of the tournament, as long as those players were part of the original 353 that nominated but weren't selected in the BBL|13 Draft. 

BBL|13 squad (so far): Ashton Agar, Jason Behrendorff, Cooper Connolly, Zak Crawley (England), Laurie Evans (England), Aaron Hardie, Nick Hobson, Josh Inglis, Matthew Kelly, Mitch Marsh, Lance Morris, Jhye Richardson, Ashton Turner, Andrew Tye 

Ins: N/A 

Outs: Cameron Bancroft (Thunder), Peter Hatzoglou (Hurricanes) 

Uncontracted from BBL|12: Cameron Green 

Draft strategy 

Cash savings appeared to a priority on draft night for the Scorchers and with the strongest domestic lists on paper that includes nine internationally capped players, it's not hard to see why. The Scorchers passed in the platinum round for the second year in a row, and along with the Renegades and Thunder, they were one of three clubs to only pick two players in the draft after also choosing not to pick in the fourth round. 

"We just felt that having the final pick in the draft that there's plenty of options at that bronze level (and) not taking our pick just gives us the flexibility to look at our options and what we need potentially closer to the start of the tournament," head coach Adam Voges said. 

"We think we've got enough cover in terms of domestic and local fast bowlers, but injuries happen, Aussie selection happens, and I think that's probably the biggest thing that will dictate that third spot is who's in the Test squad and how we get affected by that." 

BBL clubs are permitted to sign a third primary overseas player with approval from the league's Technical Committee, provided that player nominated for the draft and wasn't selected. Players contracted under this mechanism negotiate their salary for the season directly with the club. It means the Scorchers could now avoid a salary cap squeeze by paying their third overseas player less than the bronze tier amount of $100,000 and having passed in the platinum round, they spent the least of the eight clubs on draft night. 

After losing Cameron Bancroft to the Thunder during the off-season, the Scorchers need to secure an opening batter, which they did in Crawley, while they were also keen to get Evans – who was player of the match in the BBL|11 final – back after drafting him last season before they were forced to terminate his contract due to an anti-doping violation. "We missed Laurie last year … but we're really pleased to see him back playing cricket and really pleased to have him back again," Voges said. 

Squad gaps 

The dual-reigning champions are sorted across all facets but the one area they lack a little bit of depth is spin bowling after losing Peter Hatzoglou to the Hurricanes. While not necessarily a problem in the pace friendly conditions at home at Optus Stadium, the Scorchers could use another spinner when playing away on the east coast. Hatzoglou played six of seven away matches last season, while Turner provided the spin overs at home towards the end of the tournament when Ashton Agar was away on national duties and they picked four quicks.  

But West Australian spinner Corey Rocchiccioli impressed for the Renegades in the second half of last season and is still without a deal for BBL|13 after the Marvel Stadium-based club secured Australian spinners Adam Zampa and Nathan Lyon during the off-season. The Scorchers have one primary overseas and three domestic list spots still to be announced for BBL|13. 

Draft Card 2023: Strikers | Heat | Hurricanes | Scorchers | Renegades | Stars | Sixers | Thunder