FOR ONCE, AUSSIE EYES ARE ON THE WHITE BALL

In Australia, during normal times, cricket coverage is almost totally neglected during the winter off-season. These are, of course, not normal times and Australian cricket has been in the news for mostly the wrong reasons.

- TRISTAN LAVALETTE

The Australian cricket team has not played since mid-March when the Chappell-Hadlee series against New Zealand was called off due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

With that series signaling the end of the Australian cricket summer, it had initially been deemed that Cricket Australia (CA) escaped the financial and logistical nightmare that caused havoc on Australia’s winter sports codes.

That was not entirely the case. CA’s surprisingly barren finances resulted in staff salary cuts of 80 percent amid desperate cash-saving measures from chief executive Kevin Roberts which sparked public and internal outrage. Roberts fell on his sword mid-year but things have not eased for the beleaguered governing body, which inevitably lost a battle with the mighty BCCI over its postponed T20 World Cup – set for October. That must now be played in Australia in 2022 with India refusing to budge next year’s slot.

Perhaps apart from those pesky reporters more interested in the backroom shenanigans, everyone in the Australian cricket fraternity is itching for some on-field action starting with next month’s white-ball tour of the UK.

Australia’s main focus will be on the shortest format given they had been meticulously preparing pre-pandemic for a home T20 World Cup tilt – a title that has frustratingly eluded them over the years.

It’s a format Australia traditionally had treated with disdain and the results showed in continuous underwhelming T20 World Cups. But a more purposeful approach and picking T20 specialists – not just the biggest names – fuelled Australian success recently and a No.1 world ranking.