Lanning vents at loophole as Perth poised to land English ace

Melbourne Stars captain Meg Lanning has expressed her disappointment at missing out on a chance to retain one of the world's best players in the WBBL draft, with England superstar Natalie Sciver-Brunt set to be unveiled as a last-minute signing for Perth Scorchers.

Sciver-Brunt is poised to join Perth – despite not nominating for the inaugural draft – as a replacement player for eight games in the second half of the season.

The Scorchers found themselves with an overseas spot to fill when Danni Wyatt, Perth's second draft pick, withdrew from the tournament last month citing fatigue.

Sciver-Brunt initially did not nominate for the draft after struggling with knee issues throughout the Ashes, while she also sat out a series against Sri Lanka in early September.

But it is understood an improvement in her condition coincided with Wyatt's spot becoming available at the Scorchers, prompting the allrounder and her agent to express an interest in playing.

League guidelines state replacement players must come from the pool of draft nominees, but players can approach the league for special consideration should their circumstances change.

Sciver-Brunt, who is close friends with another Perth overseas recruit in Amy Jones, who joined via the direct nomination loophole, is also a former teammate of new coach Becky Grundy.

She previously played two seasons with Perth, in WBBL|03 and WBBL|05. But Sciver-Brunt's most recent season in the WBBL was with the Melbourne Stars, where she helped the club reach the WBBL|06 final in 2020 alongside Lanning.

Had she nominated in the draft, the Stars would have had retention rights to the 31-year-old.

"Pretty disappointed, actually," Lanning said in Melbourne on Tuesday when questioned about Perth's pending announcement.

"She's obviously one of the best players in the world and you want the best players playing in the competition, but she made herself unavailable initially, and all the players of her calibre went through the draft or the pre-signing, and she didn't nominate for that.

"At the Stars, we feel like, well, I certainly feel like we didn't get the chance to exercise our retention rights that we would have had to her had she nominated for the draft instead of coming in this way.

"So not only does that impact us this year, but moving forward as well now, Perth have retention rights to her.

"It's frustrating, because I think that the goalposts seem to shift a little bit and we didn't get a chance to get access to her.

"It's disappointing but I guess that's the way it goes and we will look forward to coming up against Perth and playing well against her and the team and that's all I have to say on that."

The Scorchers have yet to officially announce Sciver-Brunt as league officials continue to work through the details.

Big Bash boss Alistair Dobson said there were provisions in the contracting rules for players to become available outside of the draft, provided they could demonstrate a material change in circumstances.

"The League and Technical Committee were satisfied that these criteria had been met in Nat's case, and as we saw previously in the BBL," he said.

"Nat's availability had changed due to an accelerated progression in her fitness following the knee injury that hampered her during the last few months.

"This progression now means the ECB are willing to release Nat to take part in the WBBL, where previously they were not.

"As such, we advised all clubs that Nat was available to be signed directly.

"There are a number of steps then required for any club looking to sign a player this way.

"That process has been ongoing, and we hope to be able to provide a further update shortly."

It is understood other clubs made offers to Sciver-Brunt once her availability was confirmed.

But the Scorchers would have been in a unique position to sign her, as the only club with a place available for an overseas player on their primary list and with considerable room in the salary cap made available by the withdrawal of Gold-level draftee Wyatt – and of course, the club was already Sciver-Brunt's preferred destination.

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