BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA - NOVEMBER 23: Ricky Ponting of the BBC commentary team speaks on air before play on day one of the First Test Match of the 2017/18 Ashes Series between Australia and England at The Gabba on November 23, 2017 in Brisbane, Australia. (Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)

Hobart Hurricanes head of strategy Ricky Ponting has claimed the Big Bash League should move to an auction format.

His claim comes after the BBL had its inaugural player draft over the weekend.

The big surprise out of the draft was that five 'platinum' rated players - South African star batsman Faf du Plessis, English big-hitter Jason Roy, and West Indian star trio Andre Russell, Kieron Pollard and Dwayne Bravo - were all left without a contract.

Availability and salary cap concerns were the big issues for teams throughout the draft, with the Perth Scorchers - last year's champions - not picking up a player in the opening round of the draft.

Ponting told reporters on Tuesday that a player auction would make sense, allowing players to be valued properly instead of at a set figure that Cricket Australia imposed for each tier of player during the draft.

It was also revealed that platinum players would have cost more out of a team's salary cap in Round 2 than they did in Round 1 of the draft, meaning it was almost impossible for teams to take two of the stars.

“It just seemed that an auction would make more sense. When you’ve got a lack of availability for the players, just leave it to the franchises to spend how much they want to spend on these guys that are only there for a short amount of time,” Ponting said.

“Because if you do that, you’ve then got money left to spend at the end when those guys go.

“The current system is that they’re for (a few games) then they’re gone … and you’ve got to be able to have something left over to replenish it with.

“I would actually try and do the IPL model so each team can retain as many as you want – maybe four or six – put the domestic players back into an auction as well and make a big deal about domestic players getting bigger money and moving around and moving teams.”

Ponting also made no apologies for leaving stars on the table.

The Hurricanes signed three Pakistani players - Shadab Khan, Faheem Ashraf and Asif Ali - and said it was all about trying to win the tournament.

“We are trying to win the comp, that’s my whole gig at the Hobart Hurricanes, to win the tournament,” said Ponting, one of cricket’s leading statesmen and commentators.

“We’ve got to put together the best list we think can win it for us. And that’s it. We don’t need to think about anything else.”