Vlaeminck re-signs with the Gades, looks to end Big Bash drought

Tayla Vlaeminck will be looking to end five years in the Big Bash wilderness when the Melbourne Renegades launch their Weber WBBL|12 season at home against Sydney Thunder on October 29.

The 27-year-old fast bowler, who is currently touring India with Australia A, has signed a new two-year deal with the Renegades, where she will pull on the red jumper for the first time despite moving back to her club of origin in 2022.

Vlaeminck is one of two quicks to pen new contracts with the club, alongside left-armer Sara Kennedy, who has signed on for Weber WBBL|12.

"I didn't really think twice about it, to be honest," she told cricket.com.au of re-signing with the Renegades. "The club's been amazing to me the last couple of years.

"Not playing can be quite hard at times, but it's just been a place where I actually enjoyed going to watch the games and being around the girls.

"What Soph (Molineux) and 'Wolf' (Georgia Wareham) and 'Helmo' (Simon Helmot) have created over the last couple of years is one of the best environments I've been a part of, so it was definitely a no-brainer to re-sign.

"I'm just excited. Whether I've been enjoying cricket, not enjoying cricket, whatever period of rehab and stuff I've been at, going and watching the Big Bash and sitting around the 'Gades girls always made me want to get out there."

Vlaeminck last played a Big Bash game on November 20, 2021. Back then, she was with the Hobart Hurricanes and had just completed a successful season after returning from the serious foot injury that ruled her out of the 2020 home T20 World Cup.

But just months later, at the start of 2022, Vlaeminck suffered a recurrence of the injury, which ultimately sidelined her until mid-2023, when she made a brief return to action for Australia A in the UK – only to injure her shoulder on that tour.

During that rehab period, she made the move back to the Renegades from Hobart, but a series of ill-timed setbacks have since ruled her out of each of the past four WBBL seasons. It means her last appearance for the Renegades remains December 23, 2018.

Vlaeminck did return to the international stage in early 2024, only to suffer a devastating shoulder injury at the 2024 T20 World Cup.

Surgery, which was followed by a slower-than-expected recovery and a struggle to recapture the searing pace she is famous for – a period Vlaeminck described as the most frustrating of her career – kept her off the park until April this year, where she made a long-awaited return in a Green v Gold red-ball game.

Now, after spending a portion of her winter training with Yorkshire in the United Kingdom, and joining the Australia T20 World Cup squad for a couple of nets sessions at Headingley and Lord's, the quick has her sights set on stringing a full season together.

Currently touring India with Australia A, Vlaeminck claimed 3-24 in last week's final T20 to help her team seal a series sweep, including taking 2-2 in the 17th over with the game in the balance.

Finally being back on the park and producing game-changing cricket proved an emotional moment for the Victorian. 

"I've probably said it a hundred times before, but when you're in rehab and you don't necessarily think it's going to be possible to get back to where you want to get to ... then you get into those tricky match situations, and you always watch games thinking you'd love to be the one that's out there bowling the over," Vlaeminck said. "To actually get to do it and for it to come off and get a win for everyone, it was pretty special.

"I actually got a little bit emotional after the game, just couldn't believe that I was over here and in that situation.

"I think it just makes it all worth it, and hopefully I can just keep doing that for a while now.

"The goal at the start of the tour was to leave the tour feeling a lot more confident and ready to go for the Australian summer and I feel like so far I'm on the right track for that."

Vlaeminck's re-signing is another boost for the Renegades, who already have a strong core of allrounders in Molineux, Wareham, Hayley Matthews, Deandra Dottin and Tess Flintoff, alongside wicketkeeper-batter Nicole Faltum and top-order batter Courtney Webb.

Vlaeminck and left-armer Kennedy bolster an enviable pace attack alongside Flintoff, Dottin and Milly Illingworth. 

The Renegades have one overseas slot left to fill, following confirmation that England's Alice Capsey has moved to the Sydney Sixers.

Coach: Gavan Twining (new)

 

List spots filled: 10

 

Contracted for WBBL|12: Deandra Dottin (West Indies), Nicole Faltum, Tess Flintoff, Milly Illingworth, Sara Kennedy, Hayley Matthews (West Indies), Sophie Molineux, Tayla Vlaeminck, Georgia Wareham, Courtney Webb

 

Out: Alice Capsey (Sixers), Charis Bekker 

 

Uncontracted: Sarah Coyte, Emma de Broughe, Naomi Stalenberg, Davina Perrin (England), Issy Wong (England)