Sydney Thunder


The Sydney Thunder are an Australian franchise professional cricket team, competing in Australia's domestic Twenty20 cricket competition, the Big Bash League. The team's home ground is Sydney Showground Stadium, known as Giants Stadium. Their team uniform is chartreuse yellow. Thunder won the fifth edition of Big Bash, as well as the inaugural Women's Big Bash League.

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. 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. 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.
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 24 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. 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.
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.

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 in that season they 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.

Sydney Smash

When the league began in 2011, Cricket Australia decided they would place two teams in Sydney. With the core group of players for both sides coming from the New South Wales cricket team, this rivalry automatically becomes widely anticipated in Sydney. In the first four seasons of the BBL the Thunder lost all seven Sydney Derby games to the Sixers. However, in the first match of the fifth Big Bash League, the Thunder scored their first win against the Sixers, breaking the hoodoo set in place by their rivals in Magenta. The season also marked the first time the Thunder beat the Sixers in both games contested during the season. As at 2020, all subsequent seasons have had one win by each team.

List of Sydney Smash matches

2019–20 BBL squad

Year-by-year record

Captains list

Honours

Domestic

Sydney Thunder are sponsored by Mazda, Transport for NSW, Homeworld, Sydney Water and Moneygram for the BBL06 season.
BBL Team Sponsors:
YearsKit ManufacturersChest SponsorBreast Sponsor
2011–12KooGaCudo
2012–13KooGaWebjetUniversity of Canberra
2013–14KooGaWebjetUniversity of Canberra
2014–15Majestic AthleticMazdaSpot Jobs
2015–16Majestic AthleticMazdaHomeworld
2016–17Majestic AthleticMazdaHomeworld
2017–18Majestic AthleticMazdaHomeworld
2018–19Majestic AthleticMazdaHomeworld
2019–20Majestic AthleticMazdaHomeworld

WBBL Team Sponsors:
YearsKit ManufacturesChest SponsorBreast SponsorBack Sponsor
2015–16Majestic AthleticRebel SportsX VentureX Venture
2016–17Majestic AthleticRebel SportsMazdaHomeworld
2017–18Majestic AthleticRebel SportsMazdaHomeworld
2018–19Majestic AthleticMazdaHomeworldHomeworld
2019–20Majestic AthleticMazdaHomeworldRing.com

Imported players

The following players have been imported to play for Sydney Thunder in the Big Bash League:
BBLPlayerCountry
BBL06West Indies
BBL08England
BBL04South Africa
BBL08New Zealand
BBL03Sri Lanka
BBL01West Indies
BBL01BBL02West Indies
BBL02New Zealand
BBL08England
BBL04BBL05South Africa
BBL04 +England
BBL07New Zealand
BBL01Pakistan
BBL03Sri Lanka
BBL03 and BBL06Ireland/England
BBL05New Zealand
BBL02England
BBL08England
BBL04England
BBL05West Indies
BBL06England
BBL03England

+= Did not play a game