Kirby Short, Sammy-Jo Johnson re-sign with Brisbane Heat

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Kirby Short, Sammy-Jo Johnson re-sign with Brisbane Heat

Kirby Short and Sammy-Jo Johnson have both been part of Brisbane Heat since the first season. © Getty Images

Kirby Short and Sammy-Jo Johnson have re-signed with Brisbane Heat for the fifth season of the Women’s Big Bash League in Australia, the club confirmed on Thursday (August 15). They will join Heat’s international quartet of Jess Jonassen, Beth Mooney, Delissa Kimmince and Grace Harris in the squad. All six players played crucial roles during the club’s championship-winning campaign in the last edition.



In what was a breakout season in 2018-19, the allrounder finished third on the list of run-getters for Heat, while also picking up 20 wickets with her medium pace. She was selected for Australia A on the back of those performances and most recently, gave a good account of herself during the team's tour of England.



Short, captain of the Heat squad that won last year, has been a crucial member of the team since the very first WBBL season. She has played 51 games for the club—37 of those as skipper— and is their third highest run-getter with 875 runs so far.



Ashley Noffke, former Australia allrounder and now Heat’s head coach, said the club has made 'solid progress' in finalising it’s 15-member squad for the tournament which is due to begin on October 18.



“We’re quite close to having the squad ready to roll,’’ he said. “It’s been a busy winter for a lot of the girls with the Women’s Ashes and Australia ‘A’ tours and locally the Konica Minolta Queensland Fire doing their off-season preparations, but the Heat side of things has been progressing nicely.”



This will be the first season that the WBBL runs as a standalone event, running from October to December. Heat will play all their Brisbane matches at Allan Border Field while also visiting Mackay and the Great Barrier Reef Arena.



The defending champions kick off their campaign against last year’s finalists, Sydney Sixers, on October 19.



Squad so far: Sammy-Jo Johnson, Kirby Short, Grace Harris, Jess Jonassen, Delissa Kimmince, Beth Mooney.
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