MUMBAI: Cricket Australia chief selector John Inverarity has done something quintessentially Australian. He has spoken his mind without fear or obligation.
In an interview to an Australian newspaper, the chief selector has been scathing in his criticism of the timing of the Champions League T20, that kicked off in South Africa, on Saturday and how the T20 tournament would hurt the preparations of the Australian team as they prepare to do battle in a tough home series against South Africa, a team that beat them 2-1 in 2008-09 to end their 16-year domination on home soil.
Key Australian players like
Shane Watson,
David Warner, Mike Hussey,
Ben Hilfenhaus, Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins and
Brad Haddin will be in action in the Champions League T20 and won't have too much practice of four-day cricket before the first Test of a potentially invigorating Test series kicks off at the Gabba, on November 9.
Inverarity has been frank about the CLT20 despite Cricket Australia being a stakeholder in the tournament alongwith Cricket South Africa and the Board of Control for Cricket In India.
Now, the Indian team too are in a similar dilemma. Imagine this. Both of India's woefully out of form openers
Virender Sehwag and
Gautam Gambhir, would be playing T20 cricket for Delhi Daredevils and Kolkata Knight Riders respectively, when they could have played in the Duleep Trophy for North Zone and practised the art of leaving the ball outside the off-stump, an area both of them have been found wanting over the last 18 months.
Wouldn't James Anderson
,
Stuart Broad,
Tim Bresnan and Steve Finn be having a quiet chuckle at having a go at a rusty Indian opening line-up before the first Test of what is being billed as a revenge tour for India, kicks off at Motera, in Ahmedabad, on November 3.
And what about
Sachin Tendulkar, the man who was bowled three times in a row against New Zealand. He too would be turning out for
Mumbai Indians and be playing all kinds of fancy strokes, rather than perfect the defence, which has been curiously porous of late.
MS Dhoni would have been benefited by rest his tired fingers and even more tired mind before a gruelling home season. A rare domestic appearance for East Zone, sans the burden of captaincy, would have served him well too.
And wouldn't the bowlers too prefer to bowl in first class cricket before being up against
Alastair Cook,
Ian Bell and Jonathan Trott.
Umesh Yadav, R Ashwin and
Pragyan Ojha, all of them who would be expected to play key roles against England, would have been better served by turning out for their respective zones rather than perform in the 15-day circus in South Africa.
So far not one word has been spoken by Sandeep Patil, the new chief selector about how he would have liked to see the players in domestic cricket, before what would be their first and crucial selection meeting ahead of the England series. Patil is known to have a strong mind and has a reputation of being a no-nonsense man.
Given a choice he would have wanted the big names to play in domestic cricket prior to the England series. Will he do an Inverarity and do Indian cricket a favour? Or will he too do what the previous selection committee did? Let things be as they are and not ruffle the feather of the high command in the BCCI and hope that India do what they usually do at home even if they are rusty. Murder their opponents.
Patil's silence so far, has been pregnant and deafening.