Melbourne Renegades seek to prise Peter Siddle from Adelaide Strikers

The Adelaide Strikers have a fight on their hands to keep Peter Siddle on their contract list ahead of next summer's 10th edition of the Big Bash League, with the Melbourne Renegades eager to bring him back to the club after he became one of the tournament's savviest and best pace bowlers over three years in South Australia.

Siddle is understood to have one more year remaining on his contract with the Strikers, but the Renegades' interest in him may well extend to attempts to work out a deal with the Strikers to bring him back to Victoria for a contract that would be of great value given he is now available for the whole BBL without any international commitments.

Adelaide are believed to be equally eager to hang onto Siddle, judging him to be a required player and at the very least requiring significant compensation should the Renegades push hard to regain the 35-year-old's services.

His first BBL contract had been with the Renegades, but Siddle's record with them - when his priority was to deliver as a Test match bowler for Australia - was far from flash, returning 3 for 35 from one game in 2013-14 but then only two wickets at 44.5 in six matches the following season, albeit at the tidy economy rate of 7.05.

Encouraged by his existing relationships with the Strikers' high performance manager Tim Nielsen and head coach Jason Gillespie, Siddle moved to the Adelaide club in 2017 while the Australian limited-overs paceman Kane Richardson went the other way to the Renegades.

Siddle found himself slotting perfectly into a Strikers bowling line-up that also featured Rashid Khan, Ben Laughlin and Michael Neser, being one of the leading performers in their successful title bid in 2017-18, and strong displays in the two subsequent seasons. Over that time, Siddle has collected 36 wickets from 31 matches at an average of 19.86 and for the concession of just 6.85 runs per over.

He has impressed a wide variety of judges with his addition of numerous subtle variations to his bowling in T20 matches, proving fiendishly difficult for batsmen to attack, while also serving as an ideal mentor to the remainder of the Strikers' bowling attack.

Having retired from international cricket in all formats earlier this season, Siddle's value as a domestic T20 bowler has increased through his ability to be available for a whole tournament: an attribute that few bowlers performing to his level in recent years have been able to offer BBL clubs, particularly once the tournament grew to a 14-game home and away season.

Having lost Laughlin to the Brisbane Heat last year, the Strikers would need to recoup a senior bowler or two to replace Siddle. There would be the possibility of getting Richardson back from the Renegades, while salary cap relief is another area for negotiation between two clubs in the event of a trade.