Jones, Lee snapped up via direct nomination

England wicketkeeper Amy Jones and South Africa power hitter Lizelle Lee have both found homes for Weber WBBL|09 after taking advantage of this season's direct nomination process.

Jones will re-join the Perth Scorchers after representing the side in orange for three consecutive seasons from WBBL|04 to WBBL|06 before making the switch to the Sydney Thunder last summer.

Lee returns to the Hobart Hurricanes where she hit 296 runs in WBBL|08, the second-most at the club behind Mignon du Preez's 380.

Lee and du Preez won't play together this season however with the latter also signing a contract via direct nomination, with the Brisbane Heat announcing on Saturday they had secured her services.

England's Sophia Dunkley is the other player who has found a home using this method, signing on with the Melbourne Stars.  

The freshly introduced mechanism allowed players to dodge last week's inaugural draft and instead negotiate directly with a club. 

The caveat is that players who sign through direct nomination have their salaries capped at $61,750, some way short of the 'platinum' level salary from the draft, which sits at $110,000.  

The 30-year-old Jones was a member of the England side that defeated Australia in the ODI and T20 legs of the 2023 multi-format Ashes series, where she struck at 159.25 in the T20s.

"When a player of Amy's quality became available via direct nomination for WBBL|09, we jumped at the opportunity," Scorchers head coach Becky Grundy said.

"Amy brings versatility and international experience to our playing group and will be a key member of our middle-order. She is also a great leader around the group and formed excellent relationships in her previous stint with the Scorchers.

"We can't wait to welcome Amy back to Perth this season."

Hobart Hurricanes coach Jude Coleman said that consolidating consistency between the lists of the 'Canes and Tasmania in the Women's National Cricket League was a big reason they targeted the signature of Lee once again.

"She (Lee) was already a very naturally talented player when she came to us, but it's been fantastic to have watched her continue to work on her craft and go from strength-to-strength across all facets of her game over the past 12 months," Coleman said.  

"We've obviously got a bit of a strategy in our recruitment process where we see the benefit of having a core of similar players across both our Hurricanes and Tigers programs in terms of the development and support this allows us to give our playing group.

"We are grateful to Lizzie that after her first year in purple last season, she knew that this is a team she wanted to play for again." 

Both Perth and Hobart have now signed the maximum of three international players for the upcoming tournament, with the Scorchers adding Jones to Sophie Devine (New Zealand) and Danni Wyatt (England) and Lee joining Shabnim Ismail (South Africa) and Bryony Smith (England) as the Hurricanes' imports.

England's Tammy Beaumont and New Zealander Suzie Bates are the two remaining direct nomination players yet to be announced by clubs. Bates has been linked to the Sixers while Beaumont has connections with the Adelaide Strikers and Melbourne Renegades.

Hobart Hurricanes WBBL|09 squad (so far): Nicola Carey, Maisy Gibson, Heather Graham, Shabnim Ismail (South Africa), Ruth Johnston, Lizelle Lee (South Africa), Hayley Silver-Holmes, Amy Smith, Bryony Smith (England), Molly Strano, Rachel Trenaman, and Elyse Villani

 

Perth Scorchers WBBL|09 squad (so far): Charis Bekker, Piepa Cleary, Sophie Devine (New Zealand), Amy Edgar, Amy Jones (England), Alana King, Beth Mooney, Taneale Peschel, Danni Wyatt (England)