The BBL has introduced a roster of replacement players to fill gaps in teams who are hit by Covid-19 cases for the advance stages of the Tournament.
All the players will abide by BBL protocols and be assigned a ‘home’ club while part of the central pool but can then be contracted by any club as only a replacement player. The WBBL followed the similar model in the previous season when the tournament was played in a Sydney-based hub.
BBL 21-22 Replacement Players Pool – Here’s the list of players :
Lachlan Hearne (Sydney Thunder), Lachlan Pfeffer (Brisbane Heat – currently in Heat 18-player squad), Brayden Stepien (Melbourne Renegades), Nicholas Bertus (Sydney Sixers), Jake Carder (Perth Scorchers), Iain Carlisle (Hobart Hurricanes) Daniel Drew (Adelaide Strikers), Jake Doran (Melbourne Stars).
The back-up pool means there is a chance of more players following Justin Avendano of representing multiple Teams in the same BBL season. Avendano played two matches for Melebourne Stars before being called up by his previous side Sydney Sixers and playing against Perth Scorchers.
All eight clubs have now been hit by cases following confirmation that Matt Renshaw from Adelaide Strikers has got positive PCR result. Also on Sunday, Colin Munro of Scorchers tested positive.
Also there is a thing to note that any replacement players already signed by specific team can stay with them and if they are no longer needed when original squad members are able to return they will join the new pool of reserve players if approved by the tournament’s technical committee.
“The local replacement player pool is another example of the league and clubs working together to address the challenges of the season with innovative solutions,” Alistair Dobson, the general manager of Big Bash Leagues, said.
The tournament has been moved into a Melbourne-hub for the closing weeks of the regular season to try and keep COVID out of the league as much as possible by limiting travel if fixtures need to be rearranged at short period of time.
However, some teams will still play matches in their home states under a fly-in, fly-out model. There is expected to be clarity this week on what will happen for the finals series.