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Australian cricket legend and former Melbourne star weapon Shane Warne handed each of the club’s players a report card following their failed Big Bash League campaign – and he roasted almost all of them.
Warne is one of many experts and fans left baffled by the Stars’ failure to qualify for the BBL10 Finals Series despite being blessed with supreme talent.
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Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, Nic Maddinson, Hilton Cartwright, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Adam Zampa and Billy Stanlake were all members of the XI which lost to the Sydney Sixers on Tuesday night – and each of them played international cricket for the ‘Australia.
Ben Dunk was released from the All-Star squad at the end of the tournament and has also represented Australia on the international stage.
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The Melbourne franchise – the BBL09 finalists – has arguably the most envied list on paper of any club and was seen as a great opportunity to take it one step further this summer.
They did not win a BBL title in the first 10 years of the competition’s history and were often severely hampered by international selection.
This was not the case this summer, however, as all of the One Day Internationals and T20s against India had ended before the BBL tournament start date of December 10, while Will Pucovski was the only player. of the Stars selected in the Australian test team.
The Stars’ hopes for a place in the BBL10 final were dashed when the Sixers on tonight nabbed the Bash Boost at the MCG, a bonus point awarded to the leading team halfway through the innings of the pursuit team.
This prompted Warne to work on the Melbourne XI set, rating every player on their BBL10 campaigns.
“I think they’re going to look at all of their players and say, ‘How did they actually play this year? “” Warne said on the cover of Fox Cricket.
“If you look down there is Stoinis. How did he do it? He had some good games but should have done better. He had a lot of chances, got some 20s … but didn’t hasn’t really had that big. “
“Seb Gotch – they will be watching that role of wicket-beater keeper.
“Nick Larkin, I think, was fantastic. He stood out for them.
“Glenn Maxwell didn’t do enough but was fantastic in some games.
“Nic Maddinson – he had an average year too. He’s better than he did.
“Hilton Cartwright – he just got it right at the end. He’s better than what he’s shown before.
“(Nathan) Coulter-Nile – I think they’re going to look at his place and whether they’ll need him on the team or not.
“(Sam) Rainbird – he did well with limited chances.
“(Adam) Zampa – we know how good he is.
“I think (Billy) Stanlake did well sometimes.
“Zahir Khan has been good and a few of the others have been good.
“So if you look through that, there haven’t been too many players who have had a great season.”
Stoinis was the BBL10 Stars’ top scorer but only finished eighth in the competition standings, having compiled 396 points to an average of 33.
And Zampa was the Stars’ top wicket-taker, but only finished seventh in the tournament standings, having taken 19 scalps at an average of 17.47 and an economy rate of 7.35.
Warne has been much more positive in his assessment of the Sixers players.
“If you look the other way tonight – (Josh) Philippe, (Daniel) Hughes, (James) Vince, (Moises) Henriques have all had an outstanding season,” Warne said.
“(Jordan) Silk had a great year, (Dan) Christian did really well, (Carlos) Brathwaite was average, (Sean) Abbott was with the test team and (Ben) Dwarshuis was awesome.
“So most of the top teams did well, but the good Stars players did not do well and their not-so-tall players were poor. That’s why they end up at the bottom.”
The five clubs that made it to the final are the Sixers, Perth Scorchers, Sydney Thunder, Brisbane Heat and Adelaide Strikers.
Melbourne’s two franchises – the Stars and the Renegades – finished penultimate and last, respectively.
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