If you have an Australian passport and happen to be in Dubai on Sunday, then keep your phone on – you might be in line for a call-up to the Australian T20 side.
In a prime example of the current over-blown and clustered international schedule, Australia is currently facing the ludicrous position of having to find players to play in the first International T20 on Sunday in Dubai.
The situation has presented itself due to the Cricket Australia/BCCI/Cricket South Africa cash-cow that is the Champions League T20, with the final being played on Saturday night in Bangalore, just 24 hours before Australia’s T20 against Pakistan in Dubai.
Australia have 3 players from the squad of 12 – picked specifically for the sole T20 – that could miss the game due to representing their T20 franchise in a league currently not broadcast on Australian TV.
One player will definitely miss out, as Cameron Boyce (Hobart Hurricanes) and Pat Cummins (Kolkata Knight Riders) will face off in the first semi-final. Stunningly, if Kings XI Punjab defeats the Chennai Super Kings, then Aussie powerhouse and T20 linchpin Glenn Maxwell (you may know him as ‘The Big Show’ if you watch Channel Nine) will also be unavailable.
In short, Australia will be one short for Sunday’s T20 in Dubai.
New T20 captain Aaron Finch will have to find a player outside of the squad to fill-in for the T20, most likely Phil Hughes or Nathan Lyon, who are currently in Dubai with the ODI contingent. Finch joked recently that coach Darren Lehmann might have to put the pads on.
Players who feature in the final and are part of the ODI squad, namely Maxwell and Kings XI Punjab captain George Bailey, will have two-and-a-half days to get to Sharjah for the first ODI. Surely this isn’t adequate preparation for two players who will be vital members of our World Cup team come February.
This cricketing crossing of swords isn’t confined to the boardroom of Cricket Australia though. If the Lahore Lions had made a fairy-tale, Bradford City-esque FA Cup run through to Champions League T20 final, then 5 of Pakistan’s 13-man squad would be unavailable: opening batsman Ahmed Shehzad, former captain and all-rounder Mohammad Hafeez, explosive batsman-keeper Umar Akmal, opening bowler Wahab Riaz and young all-rounder Saad Nasim.
Further evidence of CA’s disregard for the T20 format is the two-day turn-around between the last day of the second Test against Pakistan in Abu Dhabi (November 3) and the first Twenty20 of the summer in Adelaide (November 5).
Players who are part of the Test squad, such as David Warner, Maxwell, Brad Haddin, Mitch Johnson, Mitch Marsh, Steven Smith and Mitch Starc, will be unavailable for the first T20 unless they don’t play in the ODI and are flown home early. Otherwise the opening game of the Australian summer will be played by a cobbled-together, compromised team.
So is international T20 cricket taken seriously enough by cricketing authorities? It’s understandable that players who play all formats of the game may miss the odd T20, but to schedule conflicting series is simply not good enough.
The esteem of an international cap, whether or not it’s a black T20 one, should be kept in the highest regard.
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