Perry holds no grudges over opening-game WBBL ban
The allrounder will miss Sydney Sixers' first match against Melbourne Stars due to over-rate penalties from last season
AAP
16-Oct-2023
Sydney Sixers will be without Ellyse Perry for their first game • Getty Images
Big Bash bosses say they had no choice but to suspend Ellyse Perry from this year's season-opener after three over-rates penalties from almost 11 months ago.
The WBBL launches its 10th edition on Thursday night without superstar Perry, as the Sydney Sixers take on Melbourne Stars at North Sydney Oval.
Sixers were found to be behind the rate in last year's final against Adelaide Strikes, as well as in two regular-season matches.
Under the tournament's rules, captains face a one-match suspension from their next WBBL match for a third over-rates infraction, leaving Perry on the sidelines for Thursday night.
AAP has been told the Sixers and free-to-air broadcasters the Seven Network both asked for Perry's punishment to be disregarded given it is a new season, but were knocked back.
"The competition runs with a set of playing conditions and rules around it," Big Bash boss Alistair Dobson told AAP at Monday's season launch in Melbourne. "Everyone understands what those rules are, that's the situation we're in."
Sixers' final indiscretions came in a match broadcast on Seven, making for longer gaps in play for advertisement breaks. But Dobson said that was factored into the timing of the innings.
"The rules and playing conditions generally take that all into account," he said. "The match officials take into account that there is a unique element of the WBBL where the games simulcast have some different elements to those that aren't when they do calculations."
Perry remains disappointed to miss the season opener, but refused to be critical of the situation.
"It's a really hard subjective measure sometimes to understand where time is gained and lost," she said. "A large part of that is my management of the group in those high-pressure games.
"That's something I can definitely learn from. It's a bummer to miss the first game, but I was very much aware of the rules and it is what it is."