Australia chairman of selectors Trevor Hohns on Wednesday (June 16) made it clear that Cricket Australia (CA) is expecting the country’s Indian Premier League (IPL) bound players to be available for the T20I Tri-series involving West Indies and Afghanistan in September-October.
The CA has almost finalized a Tri-series featuring Australia, West Indies, and Afghanistan just before the ICC T20 World Cup 2021 to be held in October-November and the series most probably clash with the remainder of the IPL 2021 starting mid-September in the UAE.
If the Tri-series goes ahead, the final phase of the IPL 2021 is expected to clash with the series and Hohns hopes that the Australian players would prioritize national duty by giving up to the IPL 14 contracts.
Hohns told cricket.com.au: “Around that time of the year, I would certainly hope so (those players forego the IPL for national representation). However, it will certainly depend on their commitments and what we think they should be committing to regarding their Australian commitments at that time. We haven't looked at that yet and we haven't heard from our players at this stage.”
He also believes that the matter of the players’ availability in the IPL over the Australian commitments “would have to be addressed in the future”.
Recently, seven Australian cricketers including David Warner, Pat Cummins, Glenn Maxwell, Jhye Richardson, Kane Richardson, Marcus Stoinis, and Daniel Sams pulled out of the twin white-ball tours of Bangladesh and West Indies next month and Hohns hinted that there is no guarantee that some of the IPL 2021 returnees would get an automatic spot in the T20 World Cup squad.
He added, “That will be an interesting discussion for us, there's no doubt about that, depending on performances in the West Indies particularly by some of the extra inclusions for this tour. If somebody were to really shoot the lights out with the bat or the ball, we'd have to stand up and take notice.”
The chief selector has also stressed that it would be ideal to have all the players together and play as a group and a squad ahead of the T20 World Cup 2021 in India.
Hohns further pointed out, “It is concerning ... but unfortunately we can't. However, we've got at least half of our (first-choice) squad going to the West Indies and Bangladesh, so a core group will be there, and they will be able to play together.”
On Wednesday, Australia announced the 18-man squad for the West Indies and Bangladesh tour, Hohns said the national selectors were “pretty well down the track” in finalizing the squad for the T20 World Cup, hinting there are only one or two positions up for grabs.
He signed off by saying, “There may have been one or two positions up for grabs, but we virtually thought we were close to the mark or had a good idea of where we would be going with our T20 World Cup squad. We're obviously disappointed they made themselves unavailable for this tour, but quite frankly we totally understand and respect their decisions.”
(With PTI Inputs)
