Former South African captain Faf du Plessis, batsman Riley Rossouw, former South African and current Namibian all-rounder David Wiese and former Proteas pacer Merchant de Lange were named on Thursday for the new BBL overseas draft.
In an effort to bring the best foreign cricketers into the league, the BBL Foreign Draft will be held in August this year. Each club will have the opportunity to recruit up to three primary overseas players, which include many of the biggest names in T20 cricket.
Each club will be able to select three overseas players in four rounds and four pay bands for $340,000 (Platinum), $260,000 (Gold), $175,000 (Silver) and $100,000 Bronze.
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Du Plessis, who captained the third-placed Royal Challengers Bangalore in the 2022 season of the Indian Premier League (IPL), appeared for Melbourne Renegades in 2012 after scoring an unbeaten century in the second innings in just one game of the BBL. Test debut in Adelaide
He has been seen prominently in the T20 league since he announced his Test retirement in 2021 and was placed at number three in the T20I batting rankings. Du Plessis may be available for just a portion of the BBL due to South Africa’s plans to host its new T20 league competition in January 2023.
Rossouw, who returned to the South Africa T20I squad for the first time in six years for a three-match series against England, played seven matches for the Renegades in the BBL in the 2020/21 season. He is currently the third leading run-scorer in England’s Vitality T20 Blast with 498 from 12 matches for Somerset at a strike rate of 191.53. Wiese is one of the main heroes for Namibia in his first men’s T20I. World Cup appearance last year, is yet to play in the BBL. He mounted an impressive Pakistan Super League (PSL) campaign with champions Lahore Qalandars, taking nine wickets and scoring 168 runs at a strike rate of 184.61, including 28 runs in just eight balls in the final. He is a regular in Vitality T20 Blast, The Hundred and Caribbean Premier League (CPL).
Like Wiese, De Lange has not played in the BBL before. The 31-year-old, who has played for South Africa in all three formats, recently posted a disastrous 4/9 in three overs for Somerset in this year’s Vitality T20 Blast.
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