Clark named general manager of Sydney T20 team

Stuart Clark, the former Australia pace bowler, has been named the general manager of the Sydney Sixers, one of two New South Wales-based teams in the forthcoming Twenty20 Big Bash League. At the same time John Dyson has been unveiled as the GM of the Sydney Thunder, to be based at Sydney's Olympic Stadium while the Sixers set up camp at the SCG.

Dyson will step down from his present role as the New South Wales state talent manager and chairman of selectors in order to take the position, though Clark is yet to formally announce his retirement from first-class cricket. A week ago Clark had said he was "leaning towards playing cricket", but in the end decided the administrative role was too attractive to pass up. Clark has been preparing for life after cricket for quite some time, studying commerce to bolster his previous experience in real estate.

"I am thrilled to have this chance to be part of the Sydney Sixers and the Big Bash League," Clark said. "Twenty20 is about embracing new fans and I believe it has the potential to grow cricket in the same way that one-day cricket did. It is the way forward."

Dyson, the former West Indies coach, was similarly enthusiastic about the chance to take a key role in the establishment and growth of a new team, after Cricket Australia's decree that the T20 league required a marked shift away from traditional state-based identities. As finalists in the 2010-11 domestic competition, the New South Wales side will take a final bow as a T20 entity at the Champions League later this year, alongside the tournament winners South Australia.

"I am extremely honoured to have this opportunity," Dyson said. "There are a lot of challenges ahead for everyone to get this competition up and running. This is a very exciting time for Australian cricket and I am looking forward to a successful inaugural season for the Big Bash League and Sydney Thunder in 2011-12."

Concerns that the league's organisation is lagging behind will likely be addressed at a Cricket Australia board meeting in Melbourne on Thursday and Friday, after which negotiations should resume with the Australian Cricketers Association over the terms of the new memorandum of understanding for player payments.

CA and the ACA met in Melbourne on Tuesday for informal discussions about their differences, though a CA spokesman said the positions of the two bodies remained "180 degrees different from each other".

Melbourne and Sydney will each host two teams in next summer's new Big Bash League, and the Ryobi Cup will be pruned to squeeze the revamped Twenty20 competition into the calendar. Cricket Australia's board decided on Tuesday that Etihad Stadium in Melbourne's Docklands and Sydney's Homebush Stadium would join the six major Test grounds in headquartering Twenty20 teams, with Geelong's bid rejected.

However, although the limited-overs competition will suffer with the introduction of the Big Bash League, the board has for the time being kept its hands off the Sheffield Shield. The first-class tournament involves every team playing each other twice, culminating in a five-day final, and after Australia's Ashes failure it would have been a controversial move to cut any rounds or the decider from the Shield.

But if the Twenty20 competition expands beyond eight teams after next summer, something will have to give. Cricket Australia's chief executive James Sutherland said for the time being the full Shield schedule was safe, and there were other options if more calendar time was required to play all three competitions.

"It may well be that the Big Bash does expand and there are various options for us that can be considered as part of that process," Sutherland said. "There's absolutely no reason why the cricket season has to go for five and a half months or whatever it is. It can go for longer. We can play first-class matches in September in northern Australia or other parts of Australia if we want to extend the programme and ensure a full programme of one-day cricket or Shield cricket. There's a huge range of possibilities."

For now, the Ryobi Cup has been trimmed to eight rounds plus a final, instead of the existing ten. That will provide scope for the eight-team Big Bash League, which Cricket Australia could have used to grow the game in Victoria's major regional city of Geelong. However, a lack of floodlights at Geelong's Skilled Stadium, together with the desire to push into Melbourne's western suburbs, quashed that bid.

"They were all very close calls," said Mike McKenna, the Cricket Australia marketing manager in charge of the Big Bash League. "In terms of a lot of the measurements the venues were very even. The difference for us was the size of the market that we're going to be serving with two teams in Melbourne, the growth of those markets, particularly the very strong growth predicted in the west of Melbourne, and the team that will play out of Etihad Stadium will be serving that audience."

In New South Wales, the Kogarah Oval and Sydney Showgrounds were overlooked as the board opted for teams at the SCG and the ANZ Stadium at Homebush. The eight city-based teams will reveal their names and colours in the coming weeks, while private backers will also be sought for two new sides, with the existing state cricket associations each set to take charge of only one outfit.

The other major step will involve the distribution of players among the teams, and despite initially considering a national draft, Cricket Australia now believes free agency is a more likely scenario. Teams will be keen to secure their homegrown stars, but there is unlikely to be an IPL-style system in place where a handful of marquee talents are automatically tied to their local city.

And fans will be disappointed if they expect to see stars like Ricky Ponting and Shane Watson in the Big Bash League. There are no plans to introduce a window free of international cricket during which the tournament could be played, and next summer Australia are likely to be playing Test cricket during much of the time when the Twenty20 competition is run, in December and January.

"As we map out the Future Tours Programme ... it's pretty clear to me that there's unlikely to be really clear windows for Australian players to play the full period of the Big Bash League," Sutherland said. "There may be opportunities through the Big Bash League for them to play a week or two, or maybe the finals, but to my mind, looking at the schedule into the future, I think it's probably unlikely at this stage."

Paul Collingwood will be the second international star, alongside Herschelle Gibbs, on the Perth Scorchers' Big Bash League roster. The signings continued apace on Tuesday, with the Melbourne Renegades naming a near-full squad including the fast bowlers Shaun Tait and Dirk Nannes, who will head a fearsome attack for the side based at Etihad Stadium in Melbourne's Docklands.

The Renegades will wait until later in the week to confirm their international players, but there has been no such delay for the Scorchers. The coach of the Scorchers, Mickey Arthur, said the team would benefit greatly from the presence of Collingwood, who captained England to the World Twenty20 title last year and has a less busy schedule than he used to, having retired from Tests.

"I stated last week that overseas recruits need to bring outstanding qualities, and Paul Collingwood is another who offers so much to our set-up," Arthur said. "Paul is a brilliant leader of men who helped mould his country's T20 side into an exciting and ruthless combination, which culminated in their triumph over Australia in the final of last year's World T20 in Barbados.

"Being the first skipper to lead England to victory at an ICC men's event was a massive feather in his cap. Paul is a gutsy and determined batsman who can lift the scoring rate with his attacking stroke play, he is a proven wicket-taker with the ball and is first class in the field. I am thrilled to welcome him as our second overseas signing."

Perth have also locked in the wicketkeeper Luke Ronchi, along with Western Australia's new fast-bowling recruits Nathan Rimmington and Mark Cameron. Meanwhile, in Melbourne, Brad Hodge, Andrew McDonald and Aaron Finch are the big-name Victorians to have joined the Renegades, who have already confirmed 14 of their 18 players.

The Renegades coach Simon Helmot, who is an assistant at Victoria under Greg Shipperd, will have plenty of experience in his coaching staff after Dean Jones and Merv Hughes signed up as batting and bowling mentors. In addition to the South Australian fast man Tait, the Renegades have also brought in the Queensland batsman Nathan Reardon and the left-arm spinner Aaron Heal, who was axed from Western Australia's squad earlier this year.

The surprise signing was that of Brenton McDonald, 27, a legspinner and the brother of former Test allrounder and Renegade Andrew McDonald. The team won't be short on aggression in the attack, with Nannes and Tait to be joined by the fiery fast man Jayde Herrick and the veteran Shane Harwood, who lost his Victoria contract last month.

The Renegades' cross-town rivals, the MCG-based Stars, have not yet named any of their squad but it is expected to feature several other Victoria players including Cameron White and David Hussey. In other signings on Tuesday, the Hobart Hurricanes locked in the Tasmania quartet of Mark Cosgrove, Rhett Lockyear, Evan Gulbis and Matt Johnston, while the Sydney Sixers confirmed the wicketkeeper Peter Nevill would be part of their group.



:Z:

hmm most probably i think Collingwood woll be the captain

hmmm cool

stuart clark was a very successful bowler in ashes lets see wat he do here