HOBART: Hobart Hurricanes have signed senior New Zealand batter Suzie Bates to their Women's Big Bash League (WBBL 10) squad as an overseas replacement player for the back end of the tournament.
Bates, who has an extensive WBBL career where she has featured in nine out of ten possible seasons, representing Adelaide Strikers, Sydney Sixers and Perth Scorchers, was not picked by any team in the WBBL draft.
The Hurricanes drafted Danni Wyatt-Hodge and Chloe Tryon whilst retaining Lizelle Lee on their list. But with England's players set to be withdrawn from the back end of the WBBL due to a tour of South Africa, Hurricanes sign Bates as their fourth overseas player.
Bates has scored 2229 runs at an average of 26.22, which has her sitting at 12th overall in the WBBL run-scorers list and she has played 100 games in the WBBL, which will bring plenty of experience to the Hurricanes squad.
Her international career has also seen the 37-year-old play 166 women’s international T20s at an average of 29.54 and 163 ODIs at 40.55.
Hurricanes general manager Salliann Beams is pleased to have locked in another world-class talent to the Hurricanes list. "Bringing Suzie into our WBBL squad just made sense as soon as we saw she was not selected in the WBBL|10 Draft, we thought she would be the perfect replacement for Danni once we knew her availability."
"She provides more than 130 games of World T20 cricket and will give us an experienced operator when we lose someone of Danni's ability in our line-up, " said Beams.