Meg Lanning, the Melbourne Stars captain, has expressed her disappointment and frustration over Nat Sciver-Brunt’s signing with the Perth Scorchers for the upcoming WBBL season. This disappointment stems from the fact that the England cricket star decided not to make herself available in the overseas draft, where she could have been retained by the Melbourne Stars.
Sciver-Brunt’s decision to abstain from participating in either the inaugural WBBL overseas draft in September or to utilize the WBBL’s unique overseas direct nomination category has raised eyebrows within the cricketing community. This unconventional move effectively made her ineligible to compete in the tournament this year, in accordance with the league’s regulations.
The WBBL maintains a flexible approach where players who were initially undrafted have the opportunity to be signed as overseas replacement players. This adaptability has been exemplified by cases such as England’s Sarah Glenn joining the Brisbane Heat and Sri Lanka’s Chamari Athapaththu signing with the Sydney Thunder.
Nat Sciver-Brunt, a seasoned cricketer at the age of 31, would undoubtedly have been a highly sought-after player during the WBBL draft. Her status as one of the world’s premier all-rounders, along with her previous associations with both the Scorchers and Stars, made her a valuable commodity in the realm of women’s T20 cricket. Notably, her significant contributions to the Stars in 2020, which played a pivotal role in their journey to the final, underlined her impressive track record. It’s this remarkable history that could have potentially allowed her to be retained by the Stars through a retention pick.
Nonetheless, the cricketing community found Nat Sciver-Brunt’s decision not to nominate herself for the draft surprising, even though her eligibility for retention seemed straightforward. Rumors circulated that she may have chosen to take a break and recover during the WBBL period, possibly due to a knee injury. Consequently, the Melbourne Stars adjusted their strategy by selecting Alice Capsey and Maia Bouchier, both from England, in the draft. Additionally, they secured the services of Sophia Dunkley, an England batter, directly to fill one of their three overseas player positions.
The Scorchers had initially picked Danni Wyatt as their second draft choice, but she later withdrew from the WBBL due to fatigue. This left the Scorchers with a significant gap to address just weeks before the tournament’s commencement. Fortunately, when Sciver-Brunt unexpectedly became available to all clubs for the second half of the WBBL, the Scorchers had the necessary salary cap space to potentially sign her. However, the finalization of this agreement is still pending confirmation.
Meg Lanning Expresses her disappointment over Sciver Brunt’s Signing
We’re pretty disappointed actually, She’s obviously one of the best players in the world and you want the best players playing in the competition. But she sort of made herself unavailable initially. All the players of her calibre went through the draft or the pre-signing, and I guess she didn’t nominate for that.”
As a club, as the Stars, I certainly feel like we didn’t get the chance to exercise our retention rights that we would have had for her had she nominated for the draft instead of coming in this way.
Not only does that impact us this year, but moving forward as well now because 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 look forward to coming up against Perth and playing well against her and the team
Meg Lanning
In the previous year’s men’s BBL, there was a similar situation where Martin Guptill from New Zealand, was signed and participated in the competition without initially nominating for the BBL overseas draft. Guptill had refrained from entering the BBL overseas draft due to his New Zealand central contract. However, in November 2022, he was released from that contract after the BBL draft had already taken place.
WBBL President Dobson Reacts Sciver Brunt’s Signing
Alistair Dobson, the president of the Big Bash Leagues, drew a parallel between Sciver-Brunt’s situation and the fact that she was initially considered unavailable by the ECB due to a knee problem. Subsequently, as her fitness improved, she became eligible to participate in the WBBL.
There are provisions in the contracting rules for players to become available outside the draft or after the draft should they be able to demonstrate a material change in circumstance.
Ultimately Nat’s availability changed, due to what was described to us as an accelerated progression in her fitness following the injury that she had during the English summer, and through correspondence with the ECB, they confirmed that they were now prepared to release Nat to play in the WBBL, whereas previously they weren’t in a position to do that.
We understand the Stars would be disappointed in the fact that they haven’t been able to retain Nat in the draft. But they also understand that those rules are in place and have provided feedback and we will continue to work with all our clubs on that.
Alistair Dobson President of WBBL on Nat Sciver’s Signing
Lanning expressed a positive stance on the concept of the overseas draft in the WBBL. However, she firmly emphasized her belief that the rules should not be altered retroactively, despite the fact that the provision for the draft was already in place in the WBBL before its implementation.
I think the [draft] concept is good. I think it does spread the internationals, and the really good internationals, across different teams and created some media and some talk and clubs had to really strategize and come up with their different plans along the way.
I think that was a good thing. Whether that’s what we use going forward I’m not really sure. But if there is going to be a draft, then you probably want to make sure that it sort of happens how you plan it to and I’m not sure it’s happened in this case.
Meg Lanning on the Inclusion of foreign Player on WBBL
Meg Lanning Advocates for Restructuring the WBBL
Meg Lanning’s call for a shorter WBBL season, proposing a 10-game tournament to mirror the men’s BBL, resonates with a burgeoning sentiment within the league’s female players. Lanning’s viewpoint underscores the importance of finding equilibrium in the WBBL’s structure.
I think it should be 10 games, that’s just my personal opinion,” Lanning said. “There’s obviously a lot of other things that go into it that I probably don’t understand and as players, we probably don’t get across as much as maybe other people do. I think that would create a really good quality contest. I think 14 games is quite long and there seems to be a bit of a lull for most teams at some point in the season.
It could maybe make it a little bit more enticing for the internationals to come and stay part of it for the whole time as well.
It’s an interesting discussion actually because I think a lot of people’s first reaction is if you go to less games you’re sort of cutting back and it’s going backwards. But for me, it’s the opposite. I think it actually would create a really good quality competition. There’s no room for error I guess in terms of playing and you attract the best players and the games are better to watch and better to play in.
Meg Lanning on More Leagues in WBBL
