Inswing Ignition snap up Sri Lankan legend Tillakaratne Dilshan with first pick of Southern Smash draft

Sri Lankan champion Tillakaratne Dilshan was taken with the first pick in this year’s Southern Smash draft held on Monday night.

The biggest name to sign up for regional WA’s premier T20 tournament, Dilshan was snapped up by reigning champions Inswing Ignition.

A randomised draw was done to determine the order of the draft for the first round and the Ignition, who have won two of the three titles in Smash history, pounced on the world-class all-rounder.

Dilshan scored more than 17,000 runs and 39 centuries at international level in a glittering career with Sri Lanka and will play in the Smash for the first time.

The Smash is an exciting T20 competition where players from metropolitan, regional and country areas get to rub shoulders with former State and international stars each December.

There are six franchise teams and they were able to retain four players from last year’s tournament, including their captain, before draft night at Inswing Sports Bar this week.

Former Perth Scorchers batsman Will Bosisto, who has played first-class cricket with WA and South Australia, was taken with pick two by the Albany Finance Fury.

Camtrans Bulldogs swooped on former Scorchers star and big hitter Craig Simmons with the third pick of the draft and ex-Australia batsman Mark Cosgrove headed to the Retravision Warriors with pick four.

Young gun Brock Larance, who is playing with Willetton in WACA Premier Cricket was taken with pick five by the Arc Infrastructure Aces and the final pick of the first round was Claremont-Nedlands first-grade captain Jacob Whiteaker by the Elders Avengers.

The remainder of the draft was done in order of the teams finishing position last year and each teams make up of 12 players had to include a maximum of five metro players, a minimum of three country players and a minimum of four Great Southern players.

Two Albany and District players were taken in the second round with Scottish international Ollie Davidson joining the Warriors while Royals all-rounder Lincoln Joy was selected by the Avengers after playing last year with the Ignition.

The Ignition landed Dilshan but several of their championship players found new homes.

Local Paul Donaldson and wicketkeeper Luke Gollan were both drafted by the Fury and Guy Taylor moved to the Avengers.

Other big names to find a home included Glamorgan country cricketer Tom Cullen (Fury) and WA second XI player Izzak Milentis (Aces).

Other ADCA players to be selected in the draft were English imports Myles Holland (Fury) and James Bottomley (Ignition), Coen Marwick (Bulldogs), Mohit Jaggi (Bulldogs), Seb Stanton (Ignition) and Ryan Davies (Avengers).

Former Albany player Dan Rees will again captain the Ignition who retained Shayne Wornes, Kallen Bond and John Sanders from their winning side last year.

Jeremy Wood is the skipper of the Avengers and they retained Alex Bevilaqua, Michael French and Daniel Styles.

Nathan Crudeli is at the helm of the Warriors again who kept hold of Julian Crudeli, Joel Curtis and Kieran Howie.

Ex-Albany resident Tim Hutchison is the captain of the Aces who retained Jaron Morgan, Mitch Smith and Charlie Walters.

Josh Dallimore will lead the Fury and they went into draft night with Garrick Morgan, Alex Fergie and Jack Dawson retained.

Damien Burrage is skipper at the Bulldogs with Michael Tassone, Jacob Wintle and Ben Payne staying with the team.

The fourth edition of the Smash will be played in Albany on December 29 and 30.