New Zealand veteran Suzie Bates will play for Hobart Hurricanes for the first time in the WBBL after being signed as an overseas replacement player for the back end of the tournament.
Bates, 37, has played 100 WBBL matches representing Adelaide Strikers, Sydney Sixers and Perth Scorchers across eight seasons in the competition. The all-time leading women's T20I runscorer was not selected at this year's WBBL draft.
But with England's players set to be withdrawn from the back-end of the WBBL due to a tour of South Africa, Bates has been signed by Hurricanes as a replacement for Danni Wyatt-Hodge. England's T20 players are expected in South Africa on November 17 which would see Wyatt-Hodge miss the last three games of the WBBL plus the finals if Hurricanes qualify.
Hurricanes general manager Salliann Beams was thrilled to add Bates to the squad alongside Chloe Tryon and Lizelle Lee.
"Bringing Suzie into our WBBL squad just made sense as soon as we saw she was not selected in the draft, we thought she would be the perfect replacement for Danni once we knew her availability," Beams said.
"She provides more than 130 games of T20I cricket [167] and will give us an experienced operator when we lose someone of Danni's ability in our line-up."
Hobert Hurricanes WBBL squad: Suzie Bates (overseas), Nicola Carey, Heather Graham, Ruth Johnston, Lizelle Lee (overseas), Hayley Silver-Holmes, Tabatha Saville, Amy Smith, Lauren Smith, Molly Strano, Rachel Trenaman, Chloe Tryon (overseas), Elyse Villani, Callie Wilson, Danni Wyatt-Hodge (overseas)