Stoinis named new Melbourne Stars BBL skipper

Marcus Stoinis has been confirmed as the new Melbourne Stars captain for the upcoming BBL season, replacing long-time skipper Glenn Maxwell who resigned at the end of last summer.

Stoinis, 35, has led Stars once previously in Maxwell’s absence last season. He had been a candidate to be interim captain when Maxwell missed the entire 2022-23 BBL season due to his broken leg but Stars opted to give the role to Adam Zampa.

Stoinis is only the second player behind Maxwell to play 100 BBL matches for Stars and signed a three-year contract extension at the end of last season, meaning he will remain at the club until the end of 2026-27.

Stoinis said he was honoured to take over the role.

“I had a little bit of a taste of captaining the side in Maxi’s absence last year and loved the opportunity so to be given the role full-time is a great honour,” Stoinis said.

“The Stars have been such a constant in my life every summer for the last 10 years and I truly believe that the group we have assembled both on and off the field can bring some long overdue success to the club.”

Stars General Manager Blair Crouch acknowledged Maxwell’s contribution as the leader over the past five seasons.

“First of all, I want to acknowledge and thank Glenn Maxwell for all his efforts in leading the side over the past five seasons and he will continue to be a wonderful resource for everyone at the club,” Crouch said.

“Marcus demonstrated his leadership ability last year and has been a senior member of the side for a long time.

“It’s wonderful to have someone who has been at the Stars almost from our inception lead our club in BBL14.”

Stoinis is likely to lead a depleted line-up in the early part of the season. It is unknown when Maxwell will return from his hamstring injury but he seems unlikely to play in the first match of the season at least. Scott Boland and Beau Webster are also set to miss out while with Australia’s Test squad. Overseas signings Ben Duckett and Osama Mir will also miss the first three games of the season.

Meanwhile, Victoria duo Marcus Harris and Xavier Crone have been signed by Melbourne Renegades to complete their list for the upcoming BBL.

Brisbane Heat have signed allrounder Jack Wildermuth in the final spot on their list. But Heat will add three local replacement players in the coming week with Michael Neser set to miss the early part of the season due to a hamstring injury, while Usman Khawaja and Marnus Labuschagne are unavailable until the end of the Australia-India Test series on January 8.