Peter Siddle Is the Big Bash League's Top Wicket-Taker

Vegan fast bowler Peter Siddle has finished the Big Bash League season as its leading wicket-taker, with 30 wickets for the Adelaide Strikers. That is five more than Andrew Tye and Hayden Kerr, who shared second place on 25.

The season wrapped up tonight with the Perth Scorchers beating the Sydney Sixers in the final, but Siddle's Strikers came within one win of joining them. Sitting fourth on the ladder, they knocked out the Hobart Hurricanes in the Eliminator, where their captain took 4/32, then edged the Sydney Thunder by six runs in the Knockout before losing to the Sixers at the SCG on Wednesday.

His best night came at Adelaide Oval on January 5, when he ripped through Hobart for 5/23 in 3.5 overs. In a format that limits every bowler to four overs, five-wicket hauls are rare, and Siddle is one of only two men with two of them in the BBL. He has also been named captain of the official Team of the Tournament.

Siddle is 37, an age when most quicks have long since swapped the ball for the commentary box. He went vegetarian in 2002 and later went fully vegan, and he has always said recovery is where he notices the difference most. As he told an interviewer, quoted this week by Great Vegan Athletes:

In between matches, my recovery time has been fantastic and it has improved out of sight. This is really important when there is a short turnaround between matches.

Animals came first, though. He has explained that learning about factory farming, battery hens and abattoirs left him wanting nothing to do with the meat industry.

Siddle isn't the only vegan in Australian cricket making the scorers busy. Leg-spinner Adam Zampa was Australia's leading spinner as they won their first T20 World Cup in November. Back in 2016 weightlifter Kendrick Farris showed the same thing at the Olympics, as the only male US weightlifter in Rio, all on plants.

Thirty wickets at 37. No meat, no problem.