The Sydney Thunder is an Australian franchise professional cricket team that competes in the Big Bash League, Australia's domestic Twenty20 cricket league. The Thunder, together with the Sydney Sixers, are the successors of the New South Wales Blues, who competed in the now-defunct KFC Twenty20 Big Bash. Sydney Showground Stadium is the team's home field.
The Sydney Thunder, like every other side, had a $1 million pay ceiling for the first season of the Big Bash League, but they spent over half of it on Chris Gayle and David Warner have a powerful opening combination. Gayle was chased by the Perth Scorchers, but he turned down a $250,000 deal to continue with the New South Wales team.
Sydney Thunder roster:
Brendan Doggett, Oliver Davies, Matthew Gilkes, Alex Hales, Baxter Holt, Nathan McAndrew, Chris Green, Alex Ross, Daniel Sams, Jason Sangha, Tanveer Sangha, Rilee Rossouw, David Warner, David Willey (withdrawn), Fazalhaq Farooqi (replacing David Willey for the first nine matches only), Ben Cutting, Usman Qadir, Gurinder Sandhu, Ben Cutting, Usman