Aaron Finch raises prospect of relocating BBL teams, calls for draft to go

Finch, who retired from professional cricket earlier this month after being a single-club player with Renegades, also believes the overseas draft must be dropped to allow clubs to sign players directly before they are snapped up by rival leagues.

It was reported in Nine newspapers last week that the ACT are pushing for a new BBL team to be based in Canberra but Finch thinks that would spread players too thinly.

“I think we’re already a bit thin at the moment with the talent pool to get another side in,” he told ESPN’s Around The Wicket. “I think the obvious one is the Sydney Thunder, they move to Canberra, and think the Melbourne Renegades eventually will move to Geelong. And think that would then start to develop a bigger fan base. It makes sense to be personally.”

“The draft needs to go,” Finch said. “To have the draft so late in the year, people are already committed to the other leagues because they are able to sign direct with teams so then you get Adelaide Strikers and Brisbane Heat, where guys are going off to play other tournaments because they are already committed to it. Let teams be able to sign players now. If Sam Billings wants to sign for Brisbane Heat or Melbourne Renegades, I don’t think it should matter.”

Following those comments by Ponting, Thunder captain Chris Green was strong in defence of their current home.

“We’re the Sydney Thunder, this is where we like to play. This is our home ground. This is where we’re from, the west of Sydney,” Green said. “I’d hate to see us move down [to Canberra] permanently. I like staying at home, playing at home, having my family come and watch me play. This is our home base.”

Finch was also of the view the tournament remained too long. “You’re not attracting the best players in the world for the money that we pay when you can go to South Africa or go to the ILT20 and earn just as much money for two and a half or three weeks,” he said. “Keep condensing it, because people want to play in the best competition but if it’s six weeks even, that’s a long time over Christmas to be away from family.”

This season’s BBL, which will have lasted seven weeks, saw a five-day break when the Perth Test was staged due to that being broadcast at primetime onto the east coast, something CA hopes to avoid in future seasons, while there will also be a bigger window for Australia Test players to appear with the final Test of the summer to be in the first week of January.