{"id":909355,"date":"2026-09-29T04:08:20","date_gmt":"2026-09-29T04:08:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/909355\/"},"modified":"2026-09-29T04:08:20","modified_gmt":"2026-09-29T04:08:20","slug":"west-indies-skipper-shai-hope-back-with-hobart-hurricanes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/909355\/","title":{"rendered":"West Indies skipper Shai Hope back with Hobart Hurricanes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>West Indies captain Shai Hope is heading back to the Hobart Hurricanes, signing on for the full BBL|16 season.<\/p>\n<p>The 32-year-old wicketkeeper-batter played five games during the Hurricanes\u2019 title-winning 2024-25 campaign before overseas duties cut his stint short.<\/p>\n<p>This time he will be available for the whole tournament, including finals.<\/p>\n<p>Hope leads the West Indies in both one-day and Twenty20 cricket.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-78327\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/tjd1bbp9fhzvief_073zd_68jje.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1536\" height=\"1024\"  \/>West Indies captain Shai Hope has signed with the Hobart Hurricanes for the full BBL|16 season. Image \/ Supplied<\/p>\n<p>He has made more than 1,700 runs in T20 internationals at a strike rate above 136.<\/p>\n<p>His signing follows the retirement of Matthew Wade, which left the Hurricanes short at the top of the order and behind the stumps.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-78328\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/h6adkun5yq2e7lf_dch5j_7dfk8.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1536\" height=\"1024\"  \/>The 32-year-old wicketkeeper-batter leads the West Indies in both one-day and Twenty20 cricket<\/p>\n<p>Cricket Tasmania high performance boss Salliann Beams said Hope was a priority target.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFollowing Matthew\u2019s retirement, we knew we needed to add an experienced player who could have an impact at the top of the order and also provide us with another quality wicketkeeping option and Shai ticks both those boxes,\u201d Beams said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cImportantly, having Shai available for the entire tournament gives us some real stability. He already knows our environment and a number of the players, so we\u2019re really excited to welcome him back to Hobart.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Head coach Jeff Vaughan said the club went into the off-season hunting spin options and top-order batting.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-78329\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/p5py8nx6njnn6bt_l3ebr_4fyro.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1536\" height=\"1024\"  \/>Cricket Tasmania high performance boss Salliann Beams said Hope was a priority target. Image \/ Supplied<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo the [Adam] Zampa into Hope double is a great outcome for us,\u201d Vaughan said.<\/p>\n<p>He said Hope would likely bat around number three, where he played two seasons ago.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe\u2019s pretty calm. He\u2019s a pretty cool dude,\u201d Vaughan said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBrings a lot of calmness around the dressing room and around the environment.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-78331\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/0eeso2o817ut8rs_aqleo_msfp1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1536\" height=\"1024\"  \/>The Hurricanes are aiming for a repeat of their 2024-25 season. Image \/ Supplied<\/p>\n<p>Vaughan said the club would work out closer to the season whether Hope or Ben McDermott takes the gloves.<\/p>\n<p>Hope said he was looking forward to returning.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI really enjoyed my time in Hobart a couple of seasons ago, so I\u2019m very excited to be coming back to the Hurricanes for BBL|16,\u201d Hope said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe club has obviously enjoyed some great success since I was last there and I\u2019m looking forward to getting back to Hobart, contributing wherever I can and doing everything I can to help the team have another successful season.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Hurricanes open their season against the Brisbane Heat at Ninja Stadium on December 17.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"West Indies captain Shai Hope is heading back to the Hobart Hurricanes, signing on for the full BBL|16&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":909356,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,740,85],"class_list":["post-909355","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\/909355","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=909355"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/909355\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/909356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=909355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=909355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=909355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}