Steve Smith News

Former Australian Captain Steve Smith had some advice for the Australian Cricket Board as the former skipper feels that the BBL is ignoring local players in terms of financial viewpoints. The BBL will start at the end of the year and teams are currently busy drafting places before the season starts.

Sydney Sixers have offered a contract to Steve Smith to play for them in the upcoming BBL season, but the reports suggest that Smith is yet to accept the offer, however, it is likely sure that Smith will return to the BBL competition this year, last year also he was unable to play due tournament rules.

It announced recently that local Australian players will get paid around A$200,000 for a season and the platinum category players from overseas get paid around A$340,000 Smith feels that it is unfair to pay outside cricketers more and pay less to the local players.

In a recent statement, Steve Smith stated that “I think [the draft] is interesting, I don’t know what the best way forward is, in terms of tournaments around the world, you have to look after your local players most importantly, and seeing some of the players who are coming out for big cash, I know a few of the local players, that are big players, are a little bit disappointed in terms of remuneration for the tournament. I think there’s going to have to be a way around that to keep your local players happy. I’m sure it is something to look at.”

When asked about the reason for his absence in last year’s BBL Steve Smith stated that “Honestly, last year the most disappointing aspect was the series against New Zealand got cancelled and there was a window there for me to play some white-ball cricket in the lead up to the Sri Lanka series, I wanted to play some domestic cricket in our domestic tournament to get some work in for that. My T20 cricket hasn’t been as good as I would like it to be, so I wanted to get some work in, and to not be allowed to play in my domestic tournament was the most disappointing thing for me.”

Steve Smith wants better deals for the local players as he feels that local players are paid very less when compared to other leagues where they pay local players equally. Smith also feels that higher contract offers make other players work hard and prove their skill when needed, which would eventually help Australian Cricket.