Ellyse Perry has scuppered any potential Women's Big Bash League bidding war by opting to stay with the Sydney Sixers for another two seasons.
The superstar allrounder was expected to spark a battle between WBBL clubs after her contract expired at the Sixers last summer.
Having already left NSW and set up base in Victoria for the 50-over competition, Perry was expected to be a target for Melbourne's Renegades and Stars.
But AAP can reveal the world's best women's cricketer did not entertain the option of a bidding war, preferring to stay with the Sixers.
"I think it would have been very hard for me to leave a club that has been incredibly supportive of me," Perry told AAP.
"There are some tremendous ties there with being there from the start. I'm really close with (coach) Ben Sawyer and I owe him a lot in terms of my development.
"It's also a really great opportunity, in that period of time, to be back in Sydney with my family who still live there."
Perry has been a Sixer since the competition began in 2015-16, and is the competition's leading run-scorer.
She has been the club's captain since the inaugural season and led the side to the tournament's first four straight grand finals, winning two titles.
However, an injured Perry was forced to spectate as the Sixers as her team failed to advance from the regular season last summer.
"We have missed out for the past few years so it would be good to be there and be successful again," she said.
Perry is back walking and on the exercise bike as she continues her recovery from a hamstring injury that ruined her Twenty20 World Cup last month.
She is hopeful to be back playing cricket by September if the coronavirus pandemic subsides, with a series scheduled with New Zealand before the WBBL in October.
Her re-signing comes after childhood friend Alyssa Healy also extended for two years last summer, with Sixers general manager Jodie Hawkins insisting she was never concerned Perry would leave.
"Pez and Midge (Healy) have been the foundation of our women's team and the club ... so it would feel unnatural to see them anywhere else," Hawkins said.
"We're in they're blood and they are in ours.
"It's now about working with Pez on her legacy at the Sixers. She works a lot on program development as well."
Australian Associated Press
