Renegades claim top pick in first BBL Draft lottery

The Melbourne Renegades have clinched the coveted first pick in the BBL's inaugural overseas player draft after being drawn first in the league's weighted lottery.

Last season's wooden spooners had a 50 per cent chance of acquiring the number one selection and held off the Melbourne Stars and Brisbane Heat in the first of the two lotteries held at Cricket Australia headquarters in Melbourne on Wednesday.

The Stars were drawn out second leaving the Heat with the third pick.

But the biggest surprises came in the second lottery for picks four through to eight, with the Sydney Sixers – who had only a 13 per cent chance of receiving the fourth pick after being last summer's runners-up – drawn out next.

The Adelaide Strikers received pick five, which appears likely to be used to retain Afghanistan superstar Rashid Khan, with reigning champions Perth Scorchers – who only had one entry in the second lottery – acquiring pick six ahead of the Sydney Thunder who will pick seventh.

That left the Hobart Hurricanes – who had the best chance of securing the fourth pick owing to their defeat to the Strikers in last year's Eliminator final – with pick eight.

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The league also announced the BBL|12 Draft will be held on Saturday, August 28 after the first Dettol ODI between Australia and Zimbabwe in Townsville and will be broadcast on Foxtel and Kayo Sports.

The draft will be hosted by Fox Cricket's Adam Gilchrist, Michael Hussey, Darren Lehmann, Kath Loughnan and Mark Howard.

Only 28 of the draft's more than 170 nominations have so far been publicly announced but those in contention to be selected with the first pick include Rashid, Faf du Plessis, Kieron Pollard and Dwayne Bravo, with additional 'platinum' level players to be announced in coming weeks.

Renegades' general manager James Rosengarten said the club had completed a "stack of scenario planning" around the draft and it was a huge relief to get pick No.1.

"I've got to say I was a little bit nervous because we've done so much since the end of last season around building confidence around the club and doing things differently and changing the way things have been done in the past," he told cricket.com.au.

"One of the key things … was more structured selection of our overseas players and that was an area we'd fallen down.

"We've been pretty targeted on the kinds of players that we need and then it comes down to working through the nominations of who's in the pool and making sure that we get the right players.

"We've got three or four real needs for our team and we'll look to fill those needs with this player."

Rosengarten said it would be a challenge to decide between some "incredible players" as to who to take at pick 1 and a lot of the decision would come down to availability.

"(That involves) maximising the available time that the player can play for you, overlapping that with the fixture and where our games are," he said.

"With the overseas players, the best guys are the ones that are truly invested in making your team better and Rashid is the perfect example, he loves their club."

The Renegades will be eligible to retain Reece Topley, who is England's leading wicket-taker in international white-ball cricket this year with 18 scalps at 18.33, Afghanistan pair Mohammad Nabi and Zahir Khan, and former India U19 captain Unmukt Chand, should those players enter the draft.

Sixers' list manager and Aussie great Lisa Sthalekar said they were stoked to draw pick No.4 given the odds stacked against them.

"The Sixers already have a very settled squad with lots of experience and players who have worn the magenta for years, so we are looking for some world-class additions to complement the existing group," she said.

The Sixers are eligible to retain English trio James Vince, Tom Curran and Chris Jordan, along with Pakistan leg-spinner Shadab Khan, should those players nominate for the draft.

League officials will elevate select players who they determine are the most enticing draft prospects to a platinum tier with a salary of $340,000 with clubs only allowed to select from that band during the first round of the draft (picks 1-8).

Platinum-eligible players and those that nominate for the gold salary band ($260,000) can be acquired in round two (picks 9-16), with gold and silver-tiered players ($175,000) available in round three and silver and bronze ($100,000) in round four.

From the second round, the draft will follow a snake format with the Hurricanes, who have the last pick in round two (16) to get the first selection in round three (17).

Public BBL|12 draft nominations so far

Afghanistan: Rashid Khan, Qais Ahmad, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Waqarullah Ishaq, Izharulhaq Naveed, Naveen-ul-haq Murid, Hazratullah Zazai

Namibia: David Wiese

New Zealand: Colin Munro, Todd Astle

South Africa: Faf du Plessis, Marchant de Lange, Rilee Rossouw

West Indies: Dwayne Bravo, Kieron Pollard, Sheldon Cottrell, Chemar Holder, Akeal Hosein, Evin Lewis, Anderson Phillip, Khary Pierre, Ravi Rampaul, Sherfane Rutherford, Jayden Seales, Kevin Sinclair, Tion Webster, Nyeem Young