BBL overseas player draft

I'm going to bring the blog to a close now. Plenty to digest from that draft and we'll pick through it over the next few days. Teams will now also start looking at what replacements they will need to fill gaps. Thanks for following it with us this evening. Bye for now.

And here's how it played out...

Renegades: Liam Livingstone, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Akeal Hosein
Stars: Trent Boult, Joe Clarke, Luke Wood
Heat: Sam Billings, Colin Munro, Ross Whiteley
Sixers: Chris Jordan, James Vince, Izharulhaq Naveed
Strikers: Rashid Khan, Colin de Grandhomme, Adam Hose
Scorchers: Laurie Evans, Phil Salt, Tymal Mills
Thunder: David Willey, Alex Hales, Rilee Rossouw
Hurricanes: Shadab Khan, Asif Ali, Faheem Ashraf

So that wraps up the first overseas player draft. Some interesting calls throughout. I'll bring you some initial thoughts. Some big names not selected. Availability and building a dressing room culture has seemed high on the list. Not sure the BBL bosses will be thrilled that Andre Russell, Kieron Pollard and Faf du Plessis won't be there. They were big names in the build-up.

As expected, Ricky Ponting's plans with Hurricanes were fascinating. And that last selection from Sydney Sixers. As expected, Liam Livingstone (Renegades), Trent Boult (Stars) and Rashid Khan (Strikers - retained) went early. As tipped, defending champions Perth Scorchers passed on the platinum player but they have brought back Laurie Evans and Tymal Mills.

They are both done, and so is the draft

The left-armer is back with Perth

They are done

A young Afghanistan spinner is Sixers' surprise last call

Another English allrounder called up

They are done

The West Indies spinner gets a call for Renegades

For those teams that have a pick left will be very interesting to see who they go for. Reverts to Renegades first in this last round and Hurricanes last

And the Renegades leave themselves with a pick in the last round, where they go first. Tactical.

Another player from county cricket, the left-arm seamer/allrounder.

And another team passes ahead of Bronze

Sixers won't pick in this round

Another England batter gets called up based on their domestic form. Interesting call.

The England top order batter heads to Perth. Can keep wicket if needed, too

They go for the South Africa left hander who has been in great form

A real Pakistan flavour at Hobart Hurricanes...the allrounder gets the call. Ponting says he has good availability

Not in the list I saw, perhaps I missed him. Interesting one, for sure. Will try to check.

Some very interesting calls so far. Andre Russell hasn't been picked up, or Faf du Plessis.

In the next round, which is gold and silver players, the order is reversed so Hobart Hurricanes will go first

Okay, Ricky Ponting is pulling the cards out of the bag. The Pakistan hitter gets a call-up. Interesting

The England opener is back with his previous team. An expected move

They don't go...they have Laurie Evans

This one is a bit out of the blue...the New Zealand allrounder is in

And they go for an expected pick of the England top-order batter...should be available for 10 games, says Shipperd

This is interesting, they go for Evans who was superb for Scorchers last year...and Scorchers have retained him

The New Zealand left hander gets pull out...Scorchers could retain him. But they won't. So Munro changes teams.

The wicketkeeper-batter heads back to Stars and is a good fit for what they need. Was good last season and is fully available

They go for the spinner who has been at Brisbane Heat in the past...will Heat retain him? No, they won't. So he's to Renegades

What will the tactics be in the next group? Same order of picks for this set (platinum and gold) as the first round, so Renegades up first

Well, that was very interesting. Some big names would always be left out, but fascinating how that played out.

"I'm very excited," says Trent Boult. "It's pretty cool to be part of the first draft. Hopefully I can make an impact."

Ricky Ponting has gone for spin. They certainly needed it. Expected to be available for a good portion of the competition. So Andre Russell, Kieron Pollard and Dwayne Bravo not taken in this round along with Faf du Plessis

The England allrounder goes to Thunder. He's back to the BBL and is available all tournament.

They have their platinum player with Rashid Khan

Well, well. Here we go! The defending champions have passed on the platinum group. "Availability is key for us," says Adam Voges. "We feel there are some good gold options for us."

The England quick bowler is heading back to Sixers. "Cool, calm and collected," says Greg Shipperd.

They have gone for the England wicketkeeper-batter...will Thunder retain him? No, they won't. He goes to Heat

So, at the second time, they've brought in the New Zealand quick who will play BBL for the first time

Well, here we go. Stars have gone for Rashid. Now we see what happens...and Adelaide Strikers have retained him, as expected. "He's been brilliant for our franchise," says Gillespie

And we are underway, with Renegades going for one of the premier T20 batters in the world.

Repeating what he has said over the last few weeks, Adelaide Strikers head coach has confirmed they want to get Rashid Khan back. Ricky Ponting, meanwhile, was pretty chilled about being last in the first round. "We'll sit back and watch," he said.

There are three salary bands that the clubs need to consider: gold (AU$260,000), silver ($175,000) and bronze ($100,000). The platinum category will cost a team the same as gold, with the extra AU$80,000 coming from a CA marketing pool. The salary cap in the BBL is AU$1.9million.

Melbourne Renegades came out of the weighted lottery with the No. 1 pick, while Hobart Hurricanes will probably feel a bit hard done by being No. 8 - Ricky Ponting might have to earn his fee as head of strategy. From the platinum list, it's widely assumed that Rashid Khan isn't really available as Adelaide Strikers will retain him if someone else picks him, but that in itself could be a tactical move to make Strikers burn their retention - although they would probably live with that. Melbourne Stars have a retention option on Andre Russell if they need/want it. Brisbane Heat could retain Mujeeb Ur Rahman.

A reminder that these are the 12 players available in the first round:

Faf du Plessis
Jason Roy
Liam Livingstone
Sam Billings
Kieron Pollard
Andre Russell
David Willey
Shadab Khan
Dwayne Bravo
Rashid Khan
Chris Jordan
Trent Boult

It's understood that Rashid Khan, Trent Boult, Kieron Pollard, Andre Russell are only available as platinum players, the rest can also be taken at gold if still available by then

Hello folks, time for the proper welcome now that the Australia-Zimbabwe ODI in Townsville is wrapped. Should be a fascinating few hours ahead in the draft. Clubs will have plans A, B, C, D and more. How important will retention cards be? And will there be some surprising picks lower down the order? Stay tuned to find out.

Meanwhile, I had a ponder about what each team might want from tonight and where some value picks could be, taking into account the availability that we know for some players.

If you want to get involved, tweet me @andymcg_cricket and I'll tried to include some comments