Laurie Evans is the Big Bash League’s fastest-scoring hitter this season, blasting 72 runs off 34 balls in the Perth Scorchers’ penultimate-ball defeat to the Sydney Sixers on Tuesday, their final home-and-away game of the regular season.
However, when the Scorchers meet the Adelaide Strikers in Saturday’s Eliminator, he will be 9,000 kilometers away in Abu Dhabi.
Evans is one of seven BBL players who will miss the knockout rounds to compete in the ILT20 in the UAE.
It is a schedule conflict that leaves three Englishmen with a single international cap between them as the only overseas recruits still in Australia, and it detracts from a season that has revived the BBL.
Strikers are the worst-affected club, losing Jamie Overton, this season’s joint-highest wicket-taker, and Chris Lynn, the third-highest run-scorer, as well as Adam Hose.
The Brisbane Heat will be without Sam Billings and Captain Colin Munro in Friday’s Qualifier against the Sixers, who will be without James Vince.
The main reason is straightforward: the ILT20 pays players more than the BBL.
Throughout my career, I’ve built a reputation for myself in finals and huge games, Evans remarked Tuesday night.
It’s the worst time to go, but I have a job and a family to support.
It’s simply the nature of the beast.
Despite a 50% rise in the BBL wage ceiling for this season, the ILT20 has greater financial muscle
ILT20 clubs may pay up to US$2.75 million in salary for a four-week competition, including two ‘wildcard’ players, but BBL teams are limited to US$2 million for seven weeks.
Simply put, gamers make more money while doing less labor.
However, salaries are not the sole consideration: most players had signed ILT20 contracts well before the BBL’s international draft.
When Overton signed off from the Big Bash with an Instagram post on Monday, he refuted a fan’s claim that the Gulf Giants would pay him more.
They aren’t, he explained. I had signed with them before being picked by the Strikers.
The first two overseas drafts divided opinion and created unnecessary uncertainty for players who would have been kept immediately.
Billings, for example, has spent the previous two seasons with the Heat but had to deal with the uncertainty of a televised selection instead of just accepting a contract extension.
Evans feels that there is a broad opinion among players that the BBL’s 44-game season should be played in a shorter timeframe: “I believe that the BBL could squeeze some more games in.
We’ve got a lot of respite, and I believe that will allow the greatest players to return without confrontations and complete the finals.
Evans said it’s fantastic to be able to play as many events as possible in a year. “I just think you need to change with the times.
You’ve seen it in England with the Hundred: they want everything done in a month, and it’s a punishing pace, but that’s the game we play.
The 10 games are approximately appropriate, although I believe we should cut the beginning and end.