Perth Scorchers complete signing of seven players for upcoming BBL season

Big Bash League (BBL) side completed as many as seven signings on Sunday to leave only one spot vacant on their roster for the sixth edition of Australia’s premier T20 competition. While English all-rounder David Willey has committed for yet another season with the Scorchers having won the Simon Katich medal in his first season last year, four other internationals including the Marsh brothers – Mitchell and Shaun – as well as Nathan Courter-Nile and Adam Voges has also been signed up.

The side coached by Justin Langer has also roped in promising youngsters in all-rounder Hilton Cartwright, who is currently representing Australia’s National Performance Squad in the Quadrangular A series, as well as fast bowler Jhye Richardson.

Having already signed up 17 of its allowed 18-man squad despite the BBL still being four months away, Langer is confident that a settled line-up will help the team as they prepare for continuing their successful history in the BBL.

"We’re delighted to have retained the majority of our squad, which helped us make the BBL semi-finals for the fifth consecutive year last season," said Scorchers coach Justin Langer. "It’s particularly pleasing to have our players committed and secured at this point in time, allowing us excellent preparation for another tilt at the BBL."

Talking about the re-signing of Willey despite the player’s availability being in doubt due to international commitments, Langer said that the Scorchers were keen to secure the all-rounder’s signature at any cost after making a huge impact last season.

“Unfortunately we’re going a bit against the philosophy we’ve had in the last few years – of wanting to get our overseas players here for the whole tournament. We’ve made an exception this year, because he had such a good impact last year,’’ he said. “He had an excellent work ethic and had some matchwinning performances for us. He’s a good fielder, can open the bowling and he can bat anywhere from 1 to 8 for us. So hopefully we can keep developing a good long-term relationship with him.’’

While Scorchers still have the option to make changes during the second BBL trade period in November, Langer indicated that he was not too keen to tinker with the squad.

“You keep an open mind, but I think our sport is very immature compared to a lot of other sports in terms of trading,’’ he said. “Maybe over time we’ll learn to do it better and it might change, but in a lot of ways it goes against our philosophy of wanting to retain our local boys and back our boys in.’’

Langer has also decided to not sign a replacement for the talismanic Brad Hogg who left the side to join rivals Melbourne Renegades, instead deciding to keep faith in the team’s trio of spinners – Ashton Agar, James Muirhead and part-timer Ashton Turner.

“We loved having Hoggy. But no ones’s irreplaceable,’’ he said. “We’ll get on with the business and if we keep winning and we keep providing good entertainment on and off the field, then I’m absolutely certain that the Scorchers will retain their popularity despite Hoggy leaving.’’