England star No.1; WI gun in big $1.7m snub amid ‘extraordinary’ move: BBL Draft wrap

England weapon Liam Livingstone has been the first player picked in the inaugural Big Bash draft.

The batting all-rounder, who was one of England’s best during last year’s T20 World Cup and also proved his worth with the ball, was picked up by the Melbourne Renegades, with respected coach David Saker going all in on the 29-year-old.

“In the middle (he’s destructive) and he also bowls leg spin, so sort of getting two weapons there – and he’s in some serious form,” Saker said.

Asked whether Afghanistan gun spinner Rashid Khan came into the thought process, Saker said they were always “all in” on the all-rounder.

“Yeah we talked about it. We just think he’s going to get matched, so we thought we’d go and get Liam Livingstone,” Saker said.

“We were pretty strong on him to be fair. We’ve got the player we wanted.”

Scroll down for the full list of picks!

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Just seven out of 12 premium players were picked up in the $340,000 bracket, thus leaving $A1.7m of talent unpicked. The others platinum players not picked were Faf du Plessis, Jason Roy, Kieron Pollard and Dwayne Bravo.

In total, $A5,735,000 was spent on 24 players.

The first round of selections threw up some surprises, with Andre Russell passed on and Khan’s selection at the Melbourne Stars blocked by a retention pick from the Adelaide Strikers.

Strikers coach Jason Gillespie referenced an infamous line from the movie ‘The Castle’ as he blocked the Stars.

“I was thinking of Darryl Kerrigan, ‘tell him he’s dreaming’,” Gillespie said.

“Our plan was always to retain Rashid. He’s a wonderful player, wonderful person, he’s been brilliant for our franchise over a number of years and absolutely delighted to have him back.”

With Khan out of the reckoning, the Stars instead chose New Zealand spearhead Trent Boult.

Hussey said he was going for an “out and out bowler” and expected him to swing it at the MCG.

“He generally takes the ball for New Zealand and in the IPL, generally thehite Kookaburra swings at the MCG so hopefully a few early wickets.”

The Brisbane Heat selected the well-credentialled Sam Billings while the Sydney Sixers opted for England bowling all-rounder Chris Jordan.

Drama was thrown up when Adam Voges at the Perth Scorchers opted to pass on a ‘premium pick’ to go all in on the final three picks.

“Availability’s a real key consideration for us in this first pick, and we feel there’s some great players still in the draft and look forward to using that in our next one,” Voges said.

Pressed on the decision to look past players like Andre Russell, including former Scorcher David Willey, said it came down to the “skill-set” the Big Bash powerhouse club wanted.

“We’ve got a number of former Scorches in there that we’ve passed on as well, David Willey, another one,” he said. “But we know what type of player we want, the skill-set that we want, we feel like there’s some good options in the gold round for us, and we’re looking forward to that.”

Host Kath Loughnan described the decision to pass as “extraordinary” while Mike Hussey called it a “massive call”.

“The Scorches have a number of good all-rounders already,” Hussey said.

“They’ve got Mitch Marsh in there, there’s Aaron Hardie in there as well. So the David Willey pick it made sense, but maybe it doesn’t quite fit what they want, but that’s a massive call to pass on a platinum level player.”

Meanwhile, Ricky Ponting’s Hurricanes opted for Pakistan leg spinner Shadab Khan.

The two-time World Cup-winning captain said he was surprised the bowling all-rounder was not picked first-up, while adding he was surprised Andre Russell was not picked either.

“We’ve got for Shadhab Khan,” Ponting said.

“He’s a high class international leg-spinner, very handy with the bat as well, he’s a gun in the field, so we think we’re bringing in a three dimensional cricketer into our sport.

“He’s got reasonable availability looking into what he might be available for, might miss a week in the middle and then be available for the finals if we make them, so we’re doing what most other teams are doing and looking to get these international players for as long as we can and he fits exactly what we need.

“I wasn’t expecting Shadhab and wasn’t expecting Russell, to be honest. It was a big decision for us to make then but we’ve been pretty clear right from the start that if Shadhab was there at the end then that was the way we were going to go.”

FULL LIST OF DRAFT PICKS

ROUND 1 (PLATINUM ONLY)

1. Liam Livingstone — Melbourne Renegades

2. Rashid Khan — Adelaide Strikers (retained)

3. Trent Boult — Melbourne Stars

4. Sam Billings — Brisbane Heat

5. Chris Jordan — Sydney Sixers

6. Pass — Perth Scorchers

7. Sydney Thunder — David Willey

8. Hobart Hurricanes — Shadab Khan

Total value: $A2,380,000

ROUND 2 (PLATINUM + GOLD)

9. Mujeeb Ur Rahman — Melbourne Renegades

10. Joe Clarke — Melbourne Stars

11. Colin Munro — Brisbane Heat

12. Laurie Evans — Perth Scorchers (retained)

13. James Vince — Sydney Sixers

14. Colin de Grandhomme — Adelaide Strikers

15. Alex Hales — Sydney Thunder

16. Asif Ali — Hobart Hurricanes

Total value: $2,080,000

ROUND 3 (GOLD + SILVER)

17. Faheem Ashraf — Hobart Hurricanes

18. Rilee Rossouw — Sydney Thunder

19. Phil Salt — Perth Scorchers

20. Adam Hose — Adelaide Strikers

21. Pass — Sydney Sixers

22. Pass — Brisbane Heat

23. Luke Wood — Melbourne Stars

24. Pass — Melbourne Renegades

Total value: $875,000

ROUND 4 (SILVER + BRONZE)

25. Akeal Hosein — Melbourne Renegades

26. Pass — Melbourne Stars

27. Ross Whiteley — Brisbane Heat

28. Izharulhaq Naveed — Sydney Sixers

29. Pass —Adelaide Strikers

30. Tymal Mills— Perth Scorchers

31. Pass — Sydney Thunder

32. Pass — Hobart Hurricanes

Total value: $400,000

Overall value: $5,735,000

PLAYER PAY

Platinum – AU$340,000

Gold – AU$260,000

Silver – AU$175,000

Bronze – AU$100,000

FULL LIST OF NOMINEES

Afghanistan

Eligible for retention: Rashid Khan (Adelaide Strikers), Qais Ahmad (Melbourne Stars), Mujeeb ur Rahman (Brisbane Heat), Zahir Khan (Melbourne Renegades)

Other nominees: Noor Ahmad, Ijaz Ahmadzai, Zia ur Rehman, Sharafuddin Ashraf, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Shafiqullah Ghafari, Usman Ghani, Allah Mohammad Ghazanfar, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Hamid Hassan, Hamza Hotak, Waqarullah Ishaq, Nangeyalia Kharote, Izharulhaq Naveed, Azmatullah Omarzai, Abdul Rahman Rahmani, Waqar Salamkheil, Hashmatullah Shahidi, Mohammad Shahzad, Naveen-ul-haq Murid, Ghamai Zadran, Hazratullah Zazai

Bangladesh

Al-amin Hossain, Shafiul Islam, Ripon Mondol

Bermuda

Kamau Leverock

Canada

Kairav Sharma

England

Eligible for retention: Tom Abell (Brisbane Heat), Sam Billings (Sydney Thunder), Joe Clarke (Melbourne Stars), Ian Cockbain (Adelaide Strikers), Jordan Cox (Hobart Hurricanes), Tom Curran (Sydney Sixers), Laurie Evans (Perth Scorchers), George Garton (Adelaide Strikers), Alex Hales (Sydney Thunder), Chris Jordan (Sydney Sixers), Tom Lammonby (Hobart Hurricanes), Tymal Mills (Perth Scorchers), Reece Topley (Melbourne Renegades), James Vince (Sydney Sixers), Daniel Worrall (Adelaide Strikers)

Other nominees: Rehan Ahmed, Toby Albert, Kashif Ali, Tom Alsop, Martin Andersson, Gus Atkinson, Josh Baker, Sonny Baker, Jake Ball, Tom Banton, Daniel Bell-Drummond, Luc Benkenstein, Jacob Bethel, Alex Blake, James Bracey, Henry Brookes, Patrick Brown, Solomon Budinger, Brydon Carse, Matthew Carter, Jordan Clark, Josh Cobb, Mason Crane, Zak Crawley, Matt Critchley, Steven Croft, Liam Dawson, Alex Davies, Joe Denly, Brett D’Oliveira, Jacobus Leus Du Plooy, Stephen Eskinazi, Joey Evison, Matt Fisher, Luke Fletcher, James Fuller, Ben Geddes, Ben Gibbon, Richard Gleeson, Lewis Gregory, Nicholas Gubbins, Sam Hain, Haseed Hameed, Miles Hammond, Tom Hartley, Jack Haynes, Freddie Heldreich, Tom Helm, Ryan Higgins, Max Holden, Adam Hose, Benny Howell, Louis Kimber, Tom Kohler-Cadmore, Danny Lamb, Tom Lawes, Jack Leaning, Jake Lintott, Liam Livingstone, David Lloyd, Adam Lyth, Wayne Madsen, Conor McKerr, Lewis McManus, Ben Mike, Tom Moores, Daniel Moriarty, Daniel Mousley, Steven Mullaney, Craig Overton, Jamie Overton, Samit Patel, Callum Parkinson, Matt Parkinson, David Payne, Michael Pepper, Ollie Pope, Matthew Potts, Matthew Quinn, Ben Raine, Adam Rossington, Jason Roy, Phil Salt, George Scrimshaw, John Simpson, Prem Sisodiya, Will Smeed, Nathan Sowter, Mitchell Stanley, Cameron Steel, Darren Stevens, Olly Stone, Callum Taylor, Jack Taylor, Tommy Taylor, Liam Trevaskis, Paul Walter, Joe Weatherley, Ross Whiteley, David Willey, Chris Wood, Luke Wood, Rob Yates, Saif Zaib

Ireland

Mark Adair, Andy Balbirnie, Curtis Campher, Gareth Delany, George Dockrell, Josh Little, Paul Stirling, Harry Tector

Namibia

David Wiese

Nepal

Eligible for retention: Sandeep Lamichhane (Hobart Hurricanes)

Other nominees: Subash Khakurel

Netherlands

Colin Ackermann, Shariz Ahmad, Bas De Leede, Brandon Glover, Fred Klassen, Maxwell O’Dowd, Vikramjit Singh, Timm Van Der Gugten, Roelof Van Der Merwe, Paul Van Meekeren, Tobias Visee

New Zealand

Eligible for retention: Colin Munro (Perth Scorchers)

Other nominees: Todd Astle, Trent Boult, Mitchell McClenaghan, James Neesham, Ross Taylor

Oman

Bilal Khan

Pakistan

Eligible for retention: Shadab Khan (Sydney Sixers), Ahmad Daniyal Latif (Melbourne Stars), Syed Faridoun Mahmood (Melbourne Stars), Mohammad Hasnain (Pakistan), Fakhar Zaman (Brisbane Heat)

Other nominees: Tayyab Abbas, Abbas Afridi, Asif Afridi, Abrar Ahmed, Iftikhar Ahmed, Sarfraz Ahmed, Sohail Akhtar, Kamran Akmal, Umar Akmal, Faisal Akram, Qasim Akram, Asif Ali, Haider Ali, Adil Amin, Mohammad Amir, Faheem Ashraf, Umaid Asif, Amad Butt, Shahnawaz Dahani, Salman Fayyaz, Kamran Ghulam, Zafar Gohar, Sameen Gul, Mohammad Hafeez, Mir Hamza, Mohammad Haris, Dilbar Hussain, Mohammad Ilyas, Ali Imran, Muhammad Imran Jnr, Arshad Iqbal, Mohammad Irfan, Muhammad Irfan Junior, Salman Irshad, Akif Javed, Usman Khalid, Azam Khan, Imran Khan, Junaid Khan, Maaz Khan, Musa Khan, Sharjeel Khan, Sohail Khan, Zaman Khan, Sohaib Maqsood, Shan Masood, Usama Mir, Muhammad Salman Mirza, Mehran Mumtaz, Saad Naseem, Usman Qadir, Momin Qamar, Rumman Raees, Mamoon ur Riaz, Wahab Riaz, Abdullah Shafique, Ali Majid Shah, Khushdil Shah, Yasir Shah, Saud Shakeel, Usman Shinwari, Haris Sohail, Hussain Talat, Imam-ul-Haq, Khalid Usman, Imad Wasim, Mohammad Wasim Jr, Amir Yamin, Muhammad Zahid, Zeeshan Zameer, Muhammad Zeeshan

Papua New Guinea

Norman Vanua

Scotland

Michael Jones, Michael Leask, George Munsey, Safyaan Sharif, Hamza Tahir, Craig Wallace, Mark Watt

South Africa

Chris Benjamin, Shane Dadswell, Marchant de Lange, Faf du Plessis, Pieter Malan, Migael Pretorius, Rilee Rossouw, Imran Tahir

Sri Lanka

Dinesh Chandimal, Nisala Gamage, Dushan Hemantha, Prabath Jayasuriya, Ruwantha Kellapotha, Ramesh Mendis, Lakshan Sandakan

United Arab Emirates

Vriitya Aravind, Rahul Bhatia, Aryan Lakra, Alishan Sharafu

USA

Eligible for retention: Unmukt Chand (Melbourne Renegades)

Other nominees: Harmeet Singh Baddhan, Karima Gore, Andries Gous, Nosthush Kenjige, Ali Khan, Jaskaran Malhotra, Saurabh Netravalkar, Monank Patel, Smit Patel

West Indies

Eligible for retention: Andre Russell (Melbourne Stars)

Other nominees: Joshua Bishop, Carlos Brathwaite, Dwayne Bravo, Johnson Charles, Rivaldo Clarke Sheldon Cottrell, Amrit Dass, Mark Deyal, Dominic Drakes, Fidel Edwards, Matthew Forde, Chandrapaul Hemraj, Chemar Holder, Akeal Hosein, Joshua James, Evin Lewis, Obed McCoy, Keemo Paul, Anderson Phillip, Kieron Pollard, Khary Pierre, Ravi Rampaul, Jeavor Royal, Sherfane Rutherford, Jayden Seales, Kevin Sinclair, Oshane Thomas, Hayden Walsh, Tion Webster, Kesrick Williams, Nyeem Young

Zimbabwe

Ryan Burl, Eddie Byrom, Elton Chigumbura, Christopher Mpofu, Blessing Muzarabani, Tawanda Muyeye, Richard Ngarava