League legend calls time on Big Bash career for England move

Big Bash icon Andrew Tye is set to bid adieu to the league after announcing the ongoing season will be his last in the competition.

The 39-year-old quick will instead ply his trade as a local player in England's T20 Blast after signing a two-year deal with Yorkshire.

Tye, who switched allegiance to the Melbourne Renegades ahead of BBL|15 after 10 years with the Perth Scorchers, is second among the all-time leading wicket takers in the BBL, only behind Sean Abbott.

But playing opportunities have been scarce for the veteran since his move east – which itself came as the Scorchers turned an eye to the future in the pace-bowling department – with only two games in the red so far this season, making the Yorkshire offer hard to decline.

"Having known that my opportunities were starting to dry up a little bit… it was an opportunity I couldn't pass up," Tye said in an interview to Fox Cricket ahead of Thursday's match at the Marvel Stadium.

"I tried to find one last year but nothing really sort of came about.

"To be able to have that opportunity to take my family over there, have them experience England, see a lot of our family — both my parents are English — so there’s a lot of family there.

"It's a good way for the family to know our little girls, so it made a lot of sense to me."

Known for his death-bowling prowess, Tye represented Australia 39 times in limited overs internationals and became a T20 specialist for the country between 2016 and 2021. He netted 47 wickets from his 32 outings in the shortest format and also has a five-wicket haul to his name in ODI cricket.

In the BBL, 159 out of his 162 wickets in the BBL came in Scorchers' colours and he played a crucial role in four of the club's title wins. The seamer lit up the tournament by claiming a hat-trick twice in back-to-back seasons in 2017.

As the stage was being set for his current and former teams to clash in Melbourne on Thursday, Tye admitted to emotions as he announced his decision to walk away on the broadcast.

Standing next to him was his longtime teammate Jason Behrendorff, whose lead he had followed in the move from the Scorchers to Renegades.

"Luckily he gave me a little heads-up before this, because to be honest I was in a little bit of shock as well," Behrendorff said.

"I've played so much cricket with 'AJ', we've taken a lot of wickets together, we spend a lot of time in the change rooms and off the field together, so it'll be very different without him, but I'm so thankful I got to play so much with him."

Tye was an innovator with the ball and his ability to execute variations with precision made him hard to score off for the batters.

But while he credited the "25,000 variations" as the reason for Tye's success, Behrendorff said being the "ultimate team man" is what made the fellow quick an asset for any team he played in.

"He's obviously a very good cricketer, his stats speak for themselves," he said. "But he's one of the guys that yo'’d love to have in your change-room."

"That was one of the things when I got asked about 'AJ' potentially coming to the Renegades, I said he's an absolute jet of a bloke."

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