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BBL 2020-21: Botha comes out of retirement for Hobart; Tom Curran pulls out

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Former South African spin all-rounder Johan Botha has come out of retirement to play for the Hobart Hurricanes, the side he abandoned in the 2018 season midway. Botha, 38, says he wants to finish his long BBL career with a flourish and not the way he did last year. 

“Obviously, the Hurricanes is the last team I finished with, and it wasn’t quite the end I wanted,” Botha who has joined the Hurricanes as local talent, after becoming a naturalised Australian citizen, was quoted as saying in the Hurricanes’ official Press Release.  

“I figured I’m as fit as I’ve ever been, and I feel I can still make a contribution to the team. I’ve missed playing but I didn’t really want to put it out there and say ‘can you pick me’ in case it didn’t work out, so we kept it quiet from when we first chatted about it at the Shield hub in Adelaide, and it slowly built up from there,” he added, divulging the details of how he came to such a decision. 

Botha has over the years represented three teams in eight seasons of the league, taking 39 wickets in 65 games while scoring 619 runs at the same time. 

Botha will be joined by Charlie Wakim, as replacement players for Matthew Wade and Tim Paine whilst they, are on international duties. The Hurricanes play the Sixers in the inaugural BBL game at the Blundstone Arena on 10th December. 

On the other hand, Tom Curran, the English bowling all-rounder became the second England player after fellow teammate Tom Banton to pull out of the BBL citing bubble fatigue. 

"I'm really sorry not to be playing in this year's Big Bash. As you'll already know, it's been a very challenging year and I've been in bubbles since July,” Curran said in a statement. 

"I feel very lucky to play for the Sixers, I have loved my time with you all over the last two seasons and I can promise you, this decision was not taken lightly. I will hopefully be back for many years to come, recharged and ready to go again, but for now I just need some time, normality, see family and be home," added the 25-year-old who has taken 157 wickets and scored 972 runs in 133 T20 games in his career. 

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