The Big Bash League (BBL) in Australia has grown from strength to strength over the years. Along with the competition, the players have also grown, some getting stints in other T20 franchise leagues across the world while others getting national side call-ups. And while the batsmen are usually hailed the most in BBL T20, we think some of the bowlers have stood out at all times, season after season.
Here we’re going to talk about the ‘BBL Golden Arm‘ award which is given away to the best bowler every Big Bash League edition. While several do really well, the player with the most number of wickets at the end of the season is the recipient of this award. While it wasn’t always called Golden Arm since the start of the competition, the best wicket-taker was always felicitated.
With the bat, there’s a similar felicitation for the top run-scorer of the tournament and you can check out our BBL Golden Bat winners list. Similarly, we’ve put together a BBL Golden Arm winners list which talks about the highest wicket-taker at the end of every edition of the Big Bash League, inclusive of stats of their best bowling, economy rate, matches played, and more.
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While the IPL allows four overseas players in every team, BBL allows only two and because of that, most of the players in this list are Australians itself. In the first ever edition of BBL T20, Pakistan’s Rana Naved-ul Hasan ended as the leading wicket-taker while Rashid Khan won the award in BBL 2017/18, being the two occasions a non-Aussie won this award. See our complete BBL golden armwinners list:
Big Bash League – Golden Arm winners list
| Year | Bowler | Team | Wickets (Games) | Best spell | Economy |
| 2011/12 | Rana Naved-ul-Hasan | Hobart Hurricanes | 15 (8) | 4/22 | 8.01 |
| 2012/13 | Ben Laughlin | Hobart Hurricanes | 14 (8) | 4/31 | 7.16 |
| 2013/14 | Cameron Gannon | Brisbane Heat | 18 (8) | 4/10 | 8.16 |
| 2014/15 | John Hastings | Melbourne Stars | 16 (9) | 3/24 | 7.80 |
| 2015/16 | Clint McKay | Sydney Thunder | 18 (10) | 4/28 | 8.09 |
| 2016/17 | Sean Abbott | Sydney Sixers | 20 (10) | 5/16 | 8.72 |
| 2017/18 | Rashid Khan | Adelaide Strikers | 18 (11) | 3/20 | 5.65 |
| 2018/19 | Kane Richardson | Melbourne Renegades | 24 (14) | 3/22 | 7.75 |
| 2019/20 | Daniel Sams | Sydney Thunder | 30 (17) | 4/34 | 7.83 |
| 2020/21 | Jhye Richardson | Perth Scorchers | 29 (17) | 4/24 | 7.69 |
| 2021/22 | Peter Siddle | Adelaide Strikers | 30 (17) | 5/23 | 8.33 |
| 2022/23 | Sean Abbott (2) | Sydney Sixers | 29 (15) | 3/9 | 7.44 |
In BBL 2013/14, it was Cameron Gannon who ended as the leading wicket-taker with 18 scalps in just 8 games and while he was an Australian national, he later moved to play cricket for the USA. Earlier, 17-18 wickets in a season was a massive achievement but with the growth of the league and a longer BBL schedule each year, it’s common to see bowlers pick 25+ wickets in a single season.
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Sydney Sixers’ Sean Abbott was the first bowler to end with 20 or more wickets in a single season which he did for the first time in BBL 2016/17, but he repeated that a couple of times, today also the highest wicket-taker in BBL history. Abbott also became the first bowler to win the Golden Arm award twice, winning it in BBL 2022/23 with 29 scalps in 15 games, missing out on the BBL 12 final in that seas.
Talking about some other good performers on this list, there’s Daniel Sams and Peter Siddle who hold the joint record of the most wickets in a single BBL season, both of them picking 30 wickets in 17 games each, in BBL 2019/20 and BBL 2021/22 respectively. Rashid Khan’s BBL 2017/18 performance remains the first and only time a spinner has topped the wicket-takers list in the tournament’s history.
Rashid is also the only bowler on this list to have ended with an economy rate below 6 runs per over, finishing the season with an economy of 5.65. We hope you liked what you’ve seen on this page and for more updates from the world of cricket and in particular the Big Bash League, stay tuned to ReadScoops.com.
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