{"id":190712,"date":"2025-10-05T02:36:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-05T02:36:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/190712\/"},"modified":"2025-10-05T02:36:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-05T02:36:11","slug":"ravichandran-ashwin-available-for-entire-big-bash-league-sydney-thunder-squad-ilt20-auction-video-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/190712\/","title":{"rendered":"Ravichandran Ashwin available for entire Big Bash League, Sydney Thunder squad, ILT20 Auction, video, news"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In a massive boost for the Big Bash League, Indian legend Ravichandran Ashwin has indicated he will play the entire season for the Sydney Thunder after going unsold in Wednesday\u2019s ILT20 Auction.<\/p>\n<p>Last week, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxsports.com.au\/cricket\/indian-legend-ashwin-commits-to-sydney-thunder-in-landmark-big-bash-deal\/news-story\/269b5a027b398106316797c4101db6fd\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">the Thunder announced the landmark signing of Ashwin<\/a> for the 15th edition of the BBL, with the 39-year-old becoming the first capped Indian player to feature in the Australian T20 competition.<\/p>\n<p>Initially, the off-spinner was set to only be available for the club\u2019s final three matches and the playoffs due to ILT20 commitments, entering the UAE tournament\u2019s auction with the highest base price of US$120,000 (AU$182,000). However, Ashwin withdrew his name from the auction after going unsold in the first round, with none of the six franchises showing interest.<\/p>\n<p>As first reported by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cricbuzz.com\/cricket-news\/135806\/ashwin-signs-up-for-entire-bbl-season-after-ilt20-miss\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">CricBuzz<\/a>, Ashwin has declared he will be available for the Thunder for the entire Big Bash season, which runs from December 14 to January 25. Fox Sports understands the Ashwin development will not impact the Thunder\u2019s salary cap.<\/p>\n<p>Watch the 2025 Men\u2019s T20 Internationals LIVE &amp; EXCLUSIVE on FOX CRICKET, available on Kayo Sports | New to Kayo? <a href=\"https:\/\/kayosports.com.au\/sports\/sport!cricket\/series-mens-t20-internationals!8?pg=cricket&amp;extcamp=fsaeditoriallinkcricket-edt-fsp-lnk-awr-grc-cri-kyo&amp;channel=fsa&amp;campaign=fsacontra&amp;voucher=\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Join now and get your first month for just $1 &gt;<\/a><\/p>\n<p>R. Ashwin to join the Sydney Thunder! | 00:35<\/p>\n<p><img class=\"i-amphtml-fill-content i-amphtml-replaced-content\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/1759535888_361_poster-fallback.png\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Last month, Ashwin announced his retirement from the Indian Premier League, allowing him to become a franchise cricket free agent and explore opportunities at other T20 leagues. Currently, Indian players are banned from participating in other T20 competitions while still active with the national team or the IPL.<\/p>\n<p>The veteran tweaker was the IPL\u2019s fifth-leading wicket-taker of all time with 187 scalps at 30.22.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe wouldn\u2019t have signed him purely for the commercial aspects of the fan engagement aspects if we didn\u2019t think he was still a world-class payer,\u201d Thunder general manager Trent Copeland told reporters in Sydney last week.<\/p>\n<p>Because Ashwin did not register for this year\u2019s BBL overseas player draft, Cricket Australia needed to grant an exemption for his participation in the tournament, similar to Martin Guptill\u2019s last-minute deal with the Melbourne Renegades in 2022.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a big moment for the BBL to welcome Ravi here, I have been talking to him personally on a number of occasions,\u201d CA chief executive Todd Greenberg told reporters in Melbourne on Friday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have found him a breath of fresh air, I think our fans are going to really enjoy watching him play and engaging with him when he\u2019s here for the BBL.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Thunder get their BBL campaign underway on December 16, facing reigning champions the Hobart Hurricanes in a gran final rematch at Bellerive Oval.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a massive boost for the Big Bash League, Indian legend Ravichandran Ashwin has indicated he will play&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":190713,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,740,85],"class_list":["post-190712","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cricket","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190712","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=190712"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190712\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/190713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=190712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=190712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=190712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}