Sydney Thunder

Sydney Thunder
Captain: Shane Watson
Coach: South Africa Paddy Upton
Colours:      Lime green
Founded: 2011
Home ground:

ANZ Stadium (2011-2014)

Sydney Showground Stadium (2015-present)
Capacity: Approx. 21,500[1]
BBL wins: 1 (2016)
Official website: Official Website
official Facebook page

1st kit

2015–16 Sydney Thunder season

The Sydney Thunder are an Australian professional cricket team, competing in Australia's domestic Twenty20 cricket competition, the Big Bash League.[2][3] The team's home ground is Sydney Showground Stadium, known as Spotless Stadium at Sydney Olympic Park. Their team uniform is lime green. Thunder won the fifth edition of Big Bash, as well as the inaugural Women's Big Bash League.[2][3]

BBL06 squad

S/N Name Nat. Date of birth (age) Batting style Bowling style Notes
Batsmen
6 Aiden Blizzard Australia 27 June 1984 Left-handed Left arm medium
18 Usman Khawaja Australia 18 December 1986 Left-handed Right arm medium
– Eoin Morgan England 10 September 1986 Left-handed Right arm medium
17 Kurtis Patterson Australia 5 April 1993 Left-handed Right arm off spin
99 Ben Rohrer Australia 26 March 1981 Left-handed –
All-rounders
33 Shane Watson Australia 17 June 1981 Right-handed Right-arm fast-medium Captain
12 Andre Russell Jamaica 29 April 1988 Right-handed Right arm fast medium Visa contract
Wicket-keepers
23 Jake Doran Australia 2 December 1996 Left-handed Right arm medium
Pace bowlers
30 Pat Cummins Australia 8 May 1993 Right-handed Right arm fast
8 Alister McDermott Australia 7 June 1991 Right-handed Right arm fast medium
27 Clint McKay Australia 22 February 1983 Right-handed Right arm fast medium
11 Gurinder Sandhu Australia 14 February 1993 Left-handed Right arm fast medium
Spin bowlers
52 Fawad Ahmed Australia 5 February 1982 Right-handed Right arm leg spin
93 Chris Green Australia 1 October 1993 Right-handed Right arm off spin
– Arjun Nair Australia 12 April 1998 Right-handed Right arm off spin

History

Along with the Sydney Sixers, the Sydney Thunder are the successors of the New South Wales Blues who played in the now-defunct KFC Twenty20 Big Bash. The NSW Cricket board unanimously decided on lime green as the team's colour, though other colours were considered, and rejected as being too close to other Sydney sports teams.[2] Cricket Australia did not allow Cricket NSW to use the sky blue colour traditionally associated with New South Wales sports teams.

The team made their debut in the 2011-12 Big Bash League season - the inaugural season of the Big Bash League. The team performed poorly in its first years in the competition, finishing last in each of its first three seasons and second last in its fourth season.

From 2011 to 2014, the Thunder's home ground was ANZ Stadium in Sydney Olympic Park.[4] The team played their final two games of the 2014-15 Big Bash League season at Sydney Showground Stadium after they were unable to use ANZ Stadium due to the 2015 AFC Asian Cup association football tournament. In June 2015, the Thunder announced they would leave ANZ Stadium and play all home games at Sydney Showground Stadium until the 2024-25 BBL season.[1]

The 2015–16 Big Bash League season marked the first year in which the Thunder finished in the top half of the table, finishing 4th overall. Having won the first three games of the season and boasting a squad including Michael Hussey, Shane Watson, Usman Khawaja and Jacques Kallis, The Thunder soon became the favourites to win the tournament. However, the Thunder lost their following four games and it looked as if they were set to miss out on the finals. In their final game of the 2015–16 Big Bash League season, the Thunder defeated the Sixers for only the second time in their history to book a finals berth. The Thunder faced the Adelaide Strikers at Adelaide Oval in the first semi final, winning convincingly. The Thunder then faced the Stars in the Finals the Melbourne Stars. The final was played at Melbourne Cricket Ground on the 24th of January, 2016 and resulted in the Thunder's defeat of the Melbourne Stars. The Sydney Thunder franchise also swept the titles as the women's team won the inaugural women's title hours ago on the same ground by the same margin with the same number of balls remaining (3 wickets with 3 balls remaining).[5] The men's game also featured a battle of two captains as brothers Michael and David Hussey went against each other on their mother's birthday.[6]

Michael Hussey announced his retirement from domestic cricket during BBL05, at the conclusion of the tournament he was announced the club's Director of Cricket, responsible for managing recruitment, contracts, facilities and scouting for the BBL squad.

Sydney Thunder were the most watched sports team in Australia during 2015/16 with an average TV audience of 1.2m.

Shane Watson was elected to captain the side in 2016.[7][8]

Role In The Community

MoneyGram Thunder Nation Cup

The MoneyGram Thunder Nation Cup gives cricket players from seven cultural backgrounds the chance to experience the fun and excitement of Twenty20 cricket, whilst representing their community. The winning team from each community cricket round will represent their country in the MoneyGram Thunder Nation Cup Semi Finals, with the two winners of the semi-finals playing off in a Grand Final prior to a Sydney Thunder match at Spotless Stadium.

Thunder Bus

The Thunder Bus travels around schools and cricket club in Sydney and Regional NSW, it has an interactive quiz and inflatable nets. The Thunder Bus directly engaged with 100,000 children aged between 5- 12 during this period and was seen by over 1 Million people.

Personnel

Sydney Thunder, like every other team, had a salary cap of $1 million for the first season of the Big Bash League, but they have spent almost half of the salary cap on the explosive opening combination of Chris Gayle and David Warner. Gayle was pursued by Perth Scorchers but he rejected an offer of $250,000 to stay with the New South Wales team.[9][10]

Rivalries

Year-By Year Record

Year Big Bash League Year Champions League Twenty20
2011–12 8th 2012 DNQ
2012–13 8th 2013 DNQ
2013–14 8th 2014 DNQ
2014–15 7th 2015 Tournament Not Held
2015–16 Champions

Honours

Domestic

Sponsors

Sydney Thunder are sponsored by Mazda, Transport for NSW, Homeworld, Sydney Water and Moneygram for the BBL06 season.[12]

BBL Team Sponsors:

Years Kit Manufacturers Chest Sponsor Breast Sponsor
2011–12 KooGa Cudo
2012–13 Webjet University of Canberra
2013–14
2014-15 Majestic Athletic Mazda Spot Jobs
2015–16 Homeworld
2016–17
2017–18

WBBL Team Sponsors:

Years Kit Manufactures Chest Sponsor Breast Sponsor Back Sponsor
2015-16 Majestic Athletic Rebel Sports X Venture X Venture
2016-17 Mazda Homeworld
2017-18

[13]Imported Players

+= Did not play a game

See also

References

  1. 1 2 "Sydney Thunder Announce Spotless Stadium As New Home Ground". Sydney hunder.
  2. 1 2 3 Wu, Andrew (15 March 2011). "Sydney Thunder to clash with Sixers in Big Bash". Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 22 April 2011.
  3. 1 2 "New Twenty20 Big Bash league to feature teams in pink, orange and purple as tradition is abandoned". Fox Sports (Australia). 6 April 2011. Retrieved 26 April 2011.
  4. ↑ "BBL team names and colours". 6 April 2011. Retrieved 22 April 2011.
  5. ↑ "Thunder claim the first WBBL title". cricket.com.au. Retrieved 2016-01-25.
  6. ↑ "Thunder toast historic double". cricket.com.au. Retrieved 2016-01-25.
  7. ↑ WATSON REPLACES HUSSEY AS THUNDER CAPTAIN
  8. ↑ Watson to skipper Thunder
  9. ↑ "Chris Gayle signs for Sydney Thunder in Big Bash League". Herald Sun. 30 June 2011.
  10. ↑ GAYLE JOINS WARNER AT THUNDER Bigbash.com.au. Archived 5 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine.
  11. ↑ "Thunder Nation Made Proud At Spotless". Sydney hunder.
  12. ↑ "Sydney Thunder Website".
  13. ↑ [sydneythunder.com.au "Sydney Thunder Website"] Check |url= value (help).
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