Australian and foreign stars are set for larger paydays in the BBL when the contracting embargo lifts on Thursday with the overseas draft scrapped and the minimum number of marquee domestic players lowered in an attempt to pay leading local players more. Clubs have also been given the option of not signing any overseas players.
Cricket Australia (CA) finally announced the new contracting rules just six weeks out from the WBBL season starting after a lengthy embargo period that featured months of negotiations with the Australian Cricketers Association (ACA) and feedback from clubs.
The embargo will lift on Thursday at 9am AEST and it will pave the way for the likes of Ben Stokes and Finn Allen to be signed directly to BBL clubs for potentially record contracts while Australia legspinner Adam Zampa could also finally find a club after leaving Melbourne Renegades. Australia's T20 wicketkeeper Josh Inglis is another who could benefit in theory, as he is out of contract at Perth Scorchers, however he may not be available for any part of the upcoming BBL due to Test duty which significantly hinders his chance of earning a large contract for the upcoming season.
A group of high profile Australian BBL players, as well as a number of clubs, had long been frustrated with the overseas draft which had created scenarios where perceived lower profile overseas players had earned far more money than the best local players due to the draft rules.
The draft has been scrapped with clubs no longer required to have an overseas player on their list at all, let alone for a minimum AU$300,000 which was the case last year. Previously each club was required to take at least two overseas with one needing to be on that salary band or the Platinum level of AU$420,000.
In addition to scrapping the draft, CA has announced that only three marquee players per team are required to earn more than AU$212,242 of the AU$3.18million salary cap, with the minimum number of players previously required to be six.
There will still be a requirement for the top six earners of the 18-player list in the BBL to collectively earn AU$1.7million, but more money can now be funneled to the bigger names rather than spread across a larger group in the hope it would appease some of the disgruntled stars.
The same principles will apply in the WBBL with no minimum overseas and three marquee players out of a squad of 15 earning more than AU$53,000 each of the AU$772,000 salary cap, and the top five earners must combine for more than AU$439,000.
"The market for players continues to change, and the BBL and the WBBL have always been been prepared to make adjustments as required," BBL boss Alistair Dobson told Cricinfo. "Clubs having the flexibility to make their own assessments on the value of different players and whether they're domestic or overseas players is important, and so ultimately it's about clubs having the flexibility on their list.
"That said, we still expect great overseas players to come into our league because they're going to play an important role for each team.
"The draft was a great event for us. It served a really important role for us for a period of time, and it gave a milestone for all our clubs to build their list strategies around.
"It's just a different approach this year, and we'll work with our clubs on how they announce players and bring that to life for their fans."
Part of the reason for the protracted negotiations on contracting rules for the upcoming season was to attempt to mitigate against any unforeseen consequences of changing the rules.
One such scenario is that in the the first year of the new structure most of the leagues key stars, including those who have been pushing for change, are already under contract while those who are out of contract, including some overseas stars like Allen, Stokes, Jamie Overton and Tim Seifert, could benefit from the changes in the short term with significant salary jumps.
But the league is confident that will be ironed out in the second year when the rules will change again with the marquee player minimum dropping to two per team and the top four earners only needing to exceed A$1.4 million in the BBL and A$400,000 in the WBBL.
"When you're making reasonably substantive changes to rules around contracting, it's really important that all the impacts and consequences and outcomes are thought through," Dobson said. "On one hand, it's about making sure that it's fair and competitive balance is a consideration for our clubs, and the reality is at this point in time, the player market is evolving really quickly, and so it's critical for us to make sure that whatever we do within our contracting rules considers all the different implications and dynamics in that market.
"Whether that's different cohorts of players and whether that's overseas or local players is one. And so it was important for us to take the time and consult with everyone that needed to to have a say on how that played out."
All of this has been negotiated with the ACA separate to the ongoing discussions about re-negotiating the MOU which runs until 2028 and is key to CA moving to the next phase of privatising the BBL. CA chief executive Todd Greenberg admitted two weeks ago that negotiations had stalled over the amount of revenue share the players would receive under a new MOU with the players pushing for more than the current 27.5%.
In a further change to the BBL rules, there will be a salary cap concession given to clubs who lose highly paid contracted players to other clubs via a trade or a "mutual release" once the embargo lifts. The concession will be paid by CA and be worth the same as a minimum BBL contract of roughly AU$52,000 but the player's new deal must be worth AU$360,000 to receive it.
CA is also tightening the local replacement player rules. If a contracted player is ruled out pre-tournament, he or she can be replaced. However, in season a local replacement player can only be signed once a club loses three contracted players. There is one exception where if a club loses two nominated wicketkeepers, but has not lost three players overall, they can sign a local replacement wicketkeeper.