{"id":596418,"date":"2026-09-10T20:50:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-10T20:50:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/596418\/"},"modified":"2026-09-10T20:50:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-10T20:50:10","slug":"black-caps-finn-allen-becomes-most-expensive-player-in-big-bash-league-history-signs-for-melbourne-stars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/596418\/","title":{"rendered":"Black Caps: Finn Allen becomes most expensive player in Big Bash League history, signs for Melbourne Stars"},"content":{"rendered":"

Allen then carried that form into this year\u2019s Twenty20 World Cup in India, where he hammered a record-breaking century<\/a> against South Africa to see the Black Caps into the final. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe Stars are a powerhouse team in this competition, so it\u2019s going to be a lot of fun playing for them,\u201d Allen said. \u201cThey\u2019ve already got a huge fanbase and they\u2019re only getting bigger, and I can\u2019t wait to be a part of that.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think all cricketers love playing at the MCG, so to be able to call that my home ground now is really exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"FinnFinn Allen celebrates his century for the Perth Scorchers against the Melbourne Renegades. Photo \/ Photosport<\/p>\n

Allen isn\u2019t the only Black Cap on the move. International opening partner Tim Seifert has a one-year contract to trade the Melbourne Renegades for the Sydney Sixers.<\/p>\n

While Seifert didn\u2019t achieve the same success as Allen in last year\u2019s Big Bash, 285 runs at 28.50, the Black Caps wicketkeeper is coming off the back of a title-winning season with English side Manchester Supergiants in the Hundred.<\/p>\n

The 31-year-old hit 394 runs at an average of just under 50, including 72 off 38 balls in the tournament final. It remains unclear so far how much Seifert\u2019s contract is worth.<\/p>\n

Fellow Black Cap Mark Chapman is expected to join his teammates in Australia\u2019s league, after opting out of his New Zealand central contract<\/a> earlier this week, understood to be the Adelaide Strikers.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, white ball captain Mitchell Santner will not be joining them, after he turned down a two-year deal to join the Strikers<\/a>, and focus on test cricket. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you look ahead to the summer we\u2019ve got, India here for white ball and tests and Australia away \u2013 there\u2019s not many bigger than that \u2013 it\u2019s quite an exciting time,\u201d Santner explained to the Herald. \u201cI\u2019d like to still be part of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe offer was good, I\u2019m not going to lie. They knew it would have to be a good offer for me to entertain it with contracting and what would come up.<\/p>\n

\u201cI did entertain the thought of it, but coming back to what we\u2019ve got coming up, even if I\u2019m not going to play every game of test cricket, I still feel like there\u2019s a role for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alex Powell<\/a> is a sports journalist for the NZ Herald. He has been a sports journalist since 2016.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Allen then carried that form into this year\u2019s Twenty20 World Cup in India, where he hammered a record-breaking…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":596419,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[59500,1135,182015,6726,35435,8834,7022,42574,1566,16558,14739,38268,2082,1861,78,14731,123,3025,111,139,69,20248,84101,9617,48613,5652,213,5436,71162,49118,102],"class_list":["post-596418","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-allen","tag-australian","tag-bash","tag-become","tag-becomes","tag-big","tag-black","tag-caps","tag-contract","tag-cricket","tag-expensive","tag-finn","tag-for","tag-history","tag-in","tag-league","tag-melbourne","tag-most","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-opener","tag-outfit","tag-player","tag-signing","tag-signs","tag-sports","tag-stars","tag-threeyear","tag-twenty20","tag-with"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596418","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=596418"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596418\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/596419"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=596418"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=596418"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=596418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}