BBL clubs chase replacements for absent English stars

Big Bash clubs are looking to boost their playing rosters with some young English players following confirmation that the KFC BBL will start on December 10, meaning a host of international stars will miss at least their team's first three games of the season.

The announcement today of the schedule for BBL|10 has all but confirmed that most of the competition's English stars will miss at least the opening two weeks of the tournament due to the mandatory quarantine period they'll be required to complete when they arrive in Australia.

Jason Roy, Liam Livingstone (both Perth Scorchers), Tom Banton, Lewis Gregory (both Brisbane Heat), Dawid Malan (Hobart Hurricanes) and Tom Curran (Sydney Sixers) were this week all named in the England squad for their tour of South Africa, which finishes less than 24 hours before the BBL begins.

Jonny Bairstow, Sam Billings and Reece Topley, who have all been in talks about BBL stints but have not officially signed, are also in the touring party.

Assuming the BBL's English players depart South Africa the day after their final match against the Proteas on December 9, their government-enforced two-week quarantine period won't finish until Christmas Eve at the earliest and could well stretch into Christmas Day.

In the BBL fixture that was announced today, the Hurricanes are scheduled to play four matches before Christmas and the other seven clubs will play three each.

Given the English players in quarantine won't have access to outside training facilities during their two weeks of isolation, it's highly likely they'll also need at least a few days of training before they're declared match fit, raising the possibility that they'll miss some games after Christmas as well.

The ECB could also step in and prevent their players from taking part in the BBL until they're deemed to be match fit following quarantine, as they did when Melbourne Stars fast bowler Katherine Brunt was withdrawn from the opening match of the Rebel WBBL season.

Of the English players expected to play in the BBL this season, Roy, Curran and Bairstow are centrally contracted by the ECB, while Malan is on an increment contract.

It was reported this week that the Heat have lined up 23-year-old Essex batsman Dan Lawrence to replace Banton in the early part of the season, while 24-year-old Notts batter Joe Clarke – who had a strike rate of 175 in this year’s T20 Blast competition – will reportedly fill in for Roy at the Scorchers.

Last month, cricket.com.aureported that Surrey's Will Jacks is set to step in for Malan at the Hurricanes early in the season.

"Whether (clubs) are able to bring another international in for that window, it's probably not as easy as it is in a normal year to just fly another player in," CA's Head of Big Bash Leagues, Alistair Dobson, said today.

"That said, our clubs are expert list managers and have known and have been planning for the potential that some of those (English international) players won't be available in that early window.

"They're all working on different strategies to accommodate that, whether that's replacement players or targeting specific players for their third overseas spot to fill that gap."

Dobson added that CA is looking at chartering a flight to bring the star English players to Australia at the end of the South African tour.

"We're working really hard to make sure we can get those players back from that tour into the BBL as quickly as possible," he said.

"There's some big names there that we're really excited to have and I know they're really keen to play."

While clubs will undoubtedly miss their English stars in the opening weeks of the competition, their late arrival could work in the BBL's favour in turbocharging the second half of the season. There are 35 regular-season games plus finals to be played in the new year, which was once the equivalent of a full tournament before expansion to a full home-and-away competition two years ago.

Moving this summer's white-ball internationals to the start of the season also means Australia's T20 stars like Aaron Finch, Glenn Maxwell and Marcus Stoinis – who normally depart the BBL in January due to international commitments – should be available for the whole tournament.

Gun Kiwi quick Adam Milne, Afghan trio Rashid Khan, Mohammad Nabi and Mujeeb Ur Rahman and English pair Alex Hales and James Vince are all expected to be available for the whole competition.

Veteran leg-spinner Imran Tahir will join the Renegades after Christmas, with young Afghan spinner Noor Ahmad to fill in before the South African arrives.

The NSW government will allow Australian and Indian players to train during their 14 days of quarantine ahead of the international summer, but Dobson confirmed last month that a similar exemption is unlikely for BBL internationals, even though the English players will be coming from a bio-secure bubble in South Africa.

It's understood at least one BBL international deal has been jeopardised by the prospect of 14 days in a hotel.

Imports from England, South Africa and the West Indies for the WBBL were all required to complete hard quarantine for two weeks before entering the tournament village in Sydney. Players had fitness equipment like treadmills and weights in their hotel rooms, where they had to stay for 14 days.

Big Bash recruiters are still scouring the globe in search of overseas talent following the announcement last month that a third international will be available to play in each team, while CA has also made extra money available outside the salary cap for clubs to attract some of the game's biggest names.