Melbourne Renegades get first pick in BBL overseas draft

Melbourne Renegades will get the first pick in the BBL overseas player draft next month while Hobart Hurricanes will be the last to go in the opening round.

The order of the draft was determined through a weighted lottery which took place on Wednesday based on the finishing positions in last season's BBL.

This is how the final draft order came out:

1. Melbourne Renegades
2. Melbourne Stars
3. Brisbane Heat
4. Sydney Sixers
5. Adelaide Strikers
6. Perth Scorchers
7. Sydney Thunder
8. Hobart Hurricanes

The first part of the lottery included the three teams to miss finals in the 2021-22 season: Renegades, Brisbane Heat and Melbourne Stars. Bottom-placed Renegades had three entries in the lottery, Heat two and Stars one. That meant that Renegades had a 50% chance of being drawn out as the first pick.

"Having the opening pick means we can attack the draft with a really clear plan, not just in terms of that specific selection, but also how we utilise our remaining picks to best build our squad," Melbourne Renegades general manager, James Rosengarten, said.

The second section of the draft was for the five finalists from last season and followed the same principle with fifth-placed Hobart Hurricanes getting five entries up to defending champions Perth Scorchers getting one entry. However, despite Hurricanes' weighted advantage, they were still drawn out last which means they will be the final side to pick in the first round of the draft which is for platinum-only players.

There will be four rounds overall with clubs selecting a minimum of two and a maximum of three players in total. Clubs must pass in at least one round.

Players who nominate for the draft can place themselves in either gold, silver or bronze categories with the BBL then elevating the biggest names into the platinum band.

After the opening platinum round, the next three rounds of the draft will follow a snaking order which means Hurricanes will get the first pick in round three which is for Gold or Silver players, while Renegades will have first pick in rounds two and four.

The draft will be held on August 28 following Australia's ODI against Zimbabwe in Townsville and will be broadcast live by Fox Sports.

Each club has one retention pick they can use on a player who appeared for them last season. It has been dubbed the "Rashid Khan rule" and it is widely expected that Adelaide Strikers will utilise it should another club take Rashid in the opening round where he is almost certain to be a platinum player. Of players currently confirmed in the draft, Qais Ahmad (Melbourne Stars) and Colin Munro (Perth Scorchers) are eligible for retention.

Over 170 players have registered for the draft with confirmation of names in the coming days. The tournament is likely to have significant competition this year with Cricket South Africa set to launch their new T20 league - with all teams owned by companies who have IPL sides - while a UAE league is also expected to take place at the same time.

Away from overseas players, however, the BBL has been given a boost by the likely availability of more Australia players in mid-January after the cancellation of the ODI series against South Africa.

Afghanistan
Rashid Khan, Qais Ahmad, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Waqarullah Ishaq, Izharulhaq Naveed, Naveen Ul Haq Murid, Hazratullah Zazai

New Zealand
Colin Munro, Todd Astle

South Africa
Faf du Plessis, Marchant de Lange, Rilee Rossouw, David Wiese (also Namibia)

West Indies
Dwayne Bravo, Kieron Pollard, Sheldon Cottrell, Chemar Holder, Akeal Hosein, Evin Lewis, Anderson Phillip, Khary Pierre, Ravi Rampaul, Sherfane Rutherford, Jayden Seales, Kevin Sinclair, Tion Webster, Nyeem Young