Steven Smith ineligible despite his national teammates making the cut for BBL

The captain of the Sydney Sixers, Moises Henriques has expressed disappointment after Steven Smith was ruled out of the BBL as an ineligible player. He termed it as sad and disappointing for cricket.

Henriques quoted, “You have got a former Australian captain, one of the best players in the world," Henriques told reporters. "You have got IPL teams who pay multi-million dollars just to have this guy as part of their franchise. Advertising, bums on seats, eyes on TVs - I mean, you do the maths. And we're saying no because of a rule that is two weeks old in some COVID bubble hub. To me, I don't get it.”

Smith’s application to participate in the Qualifier game against Perth Scorchers was rejected after the other franchises voted against him being in the team. His name was initially not added to the roster of the BBL players and that is why he wasn’t allowed to be on the playing roster. Now with Australia’s series against New Zealand getting postponed, it opened up a window for the national players to dabble in the franchise contest.

CA clarified that on allowing Smith to participate in the contest, it would have been flouting of the rules and the regulations that was brought in effect in the last two weeks to accommodate the replacement players’ pool.

CA quoted in a statement, “In creating the central LRP pool, it was agreed that clubs would not be able to contract LRPs from outside the pool for the remainder of the season. This request was denied ... noting that other players returning to the BBL from international duty have been retained on club lists throughout the competition."

Henriques professed that the board should have been more flexible with a pandemic in existence. He cited, “We're in the top two without him ... so I have got absolute belief in our domestic talent and local talent to do the job. I think it's sad for cricket, that's all. What I do respect is that they (CA) have kept rolling with the punches, and I just can't see why they don't keep rolling with the punches now. To say (we're) a little bit disgruntled would be an understatement.”

He concluded by saying, “The people who have run this competition have acted on the fly on a number of occasions this season and changed the rules on a number of occasions to suit the competition and keep the competition moving forward. As they should, and I think they've done a brilliant job to date. It's a two-week old rule that was made on the fly and they obviously forgot about a loophole of any returning local Australian players who weren't already contracted.”

However, Smith’s national teammates, Travis Head and Nathan Lyon had signed contracts with their respective franchises and will be participating in the finals.