Last Updated on 1 year by Charbel Coorey

Cricket News: CA allows BBL teams to sign marquee Aussie players outside salary cap | How much is the BBL salary cap?

Cricket Australia (CA) is set to allow Big Bash League (BBL) clubs to rope in nationally-contracted players outside of their salary cap, ESPNcricinfo reports. Players can thus sign up for these BBL clubs on a marquee supplementary list provided they aren’t going to be playing. The cricketer can be included in the team’s full-time squad to play the games provided their circumstances change during the time of the season.

These changes are coming about as certain tweaks are being made in both the men’s and the women’s BBL. Therefore, the most expensive overseas player will get AU$420,000 and AU$110,000 in the men’s and women’s BBL respectively. The top six men’s and women’s earners will each pocket AU$200,000 and AU$50,000 respectively.

There is no limit on the nationally contracted players who can be recruited inside the AU$3 million cap for each club as a part of their 18-player squad. Two additional players of that pedigree can be signed up and all of them will obtain a standard deal of AU$50,000. Their AU$50,000 contract and AU$30,000 match fees will start getting counted to the cap only if they make any appearances during the course of the BBL season.

This will ensure that clubs do not have to devote a significant amount of their spending purse to players who will be engaged in the national team Test matches during the course of the Australian summer. However, stars like Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Steve Smith among others can continue to be associated with the clubs for marketing material.

“It’s always our ambition for as many of those players to be part of the BBL as possible. We hope that the mechanisms will enable clubs to sign players even if they are either unlikely or not available. Because having them around the BBL and ready if available, is a really important part of the competition for us,” Alistair Dobson, General Manager, Big Bash League, was quoted in a report by the aforementioned website.