Brisbane Heat sign Windies spinner Badree

Brisbane, Oct 16 (IANS/CMC) World No.1 Twenty20 bowler Samuel Badree will campaign in this year’s Big Bash League after penning a deal with Brisbane Heat.

The West Indies leg-spinner found himself on Heat’s radar following his appearance in last year’s Champions League Twenty20 for his native Trinidad and Tobago and head coach Stuart Law believes he will be a valuable addition for the Australian T20 league side, reports CMC.

“Samuel bowled really well against us and throughout the Champions League and so we kept an eye on him after that. He's a different sort of leg spin bowler but very effective. We know we will have two world class spinners for the majority of the tournament and we believe Samuel will bring to the table with us what he has done around the world with such success," Law said.

“You look up his record with the West Indies and the domestic teams he has played for and it is first rate. We’re sure he is going to be keen to tick the same box with us.”

The 33-year-old Badree has been outstanding for the West Indies in the game’s shortest format, taking 31 wickets from 22 Twenty20 Internationals at an average of 14.96, since making his international debut two years ago. Only this year, he snared 11 wickets at 10.27 with an economy rate of 5.65 in the World T20 in Bangladesh.

He was a member of the Chennai Super Kings who earlier this month won the CLT20 in India, though he failed to play a single game.

In Heat, Badree will team up with veteran New Zealand left-arm spinner Daniel Vettori.

BBL bowls off Dec 18 and concludes with the final Jan 28.

--IANS/CMC