Travis Head, Pat Cummins, Kagiso Rabada and David Miller were among the big names missing as Major League Cricket franchises named their retentions ahead of the draft for the next season on February 19.
Defending champions Washington Freedom retained 15 players, the most across all teams, but let go of Head, who was their joint-highest scorer last year alongside captain Steven Smith. Akeal Hosein and Andrew Tye were the other overseas players released by Freedom.
San Francisco Unicorns, runners-up in 2024, also kept a majority of their core intact, including their hard-hitting opening pair of Finn Allen and Jake Fraser-McGurk, but parted ways with Cummins, Matt Henry and Josh Inglis among others.
Seattle Orcas, having retained just seven players – the fewest among the six teams, will go through the biggest squad revamp. They retained just two overseas players – the South African duo of Heinrich Klaasen and Ryan Rickelton, the latter has had a successful run in international cricket since the last MLC season. Among their seven overseas players released were Quinton de Kock, Michael Bracewell, Obed McCoy and Nandre Burger.
LA Knight Riders will also face a similar challenge in the draft, having retained just three overseas players in Andre Russell, Sunil Narine and Australian left-arm quick Spencer Johnson. Their releases included Miller, Jason Roy, Shakib Al Hasan and Adam Zampa.
MI New York, who won the inaugural MLC title, have retained the services of Kieron Pollard – an MI veteran – along with Trent Boult, Nicholas Pooran and Rashid Khan. However, they let go of the South African pace duo of Rabada and Anrich Nortje, as well as Tim David and Dewald Brevis.
Faf du Plessis and Devon Conway are expected to be back at the top of the order for Texas Super Kings in the new season. They have also retained allrounder Marcus Stoinis and Afghan left-arm wristspinner Noor Ahmad. Mitchell Santner, Matheesha Mathirana, Daryl Mitchell and Naveen-ul-Haq are among the releases.
The notable domestic players who have not been retained include MI New York’s Steven Taylor, Seattle Orcas’ Shehan Jayasuriya and Washington Freedom’s Jasdeep Singh.