Mike Hussey
Australian selector Greg Chappell on Monday denied advising batsman Mike Hussey to retire from international cricket after he was withdrawn from the World Cup squad because of injury. Australia’s best ranked one-day batsman said he was shocked and disappointed to miss the World Cup after selectors decided he was unfit following recent hamstring surgery.
Hussey, 35, had insisted he would be fit for Australia’s second World Cup match against New Zealand in Nagpur on Friday, but the selectors were not swayed by his assurances.
To prove the point Hussey put in an intense training session with his state side Western Australia on Sunday, but his name was missing from the team list announced for Monday’s start to a four-day Sheffield Shield game against Tasmania in Perth.
Chappell, who met with Hussey in Perth earlier this month, said he had not told the left-hander to consider retirement. “That’s untrue,” Chappell told reporters in Melbourne, adding that there was nothing sinister behind Hussey’s withdrawal from this week’s Shield game.
“In the nets yesterday he was pretty excited by the way he pulled up, but in discussions between Cricket Australia medical staff and West Australian medical staff, they decided it was probably imprudent to try and rush it,” Chappell said.
“They decided to stick to the original plan and try and play some club cricket on the weekend and resume on March 3. They jointly agreed to stick to that plan.” Chappell said it was “out of the question” that Hussey could re-join the Australian World Cup squad.
“Once he’s been withdrawn he can’t come in, even if it is to replace someone else,” he said. Hussey was one of Australia’s few stars in this summer’s Ashes series loss to England, scoring 570 runs at 63.33 with two centuries. He is also regarded as one of Australia’s leading one-day cricketers, averaging 51.98 across 151 internationals.
Tags: Australia, Cricket, Football World Cup, Greg Chappel, ICC Cricket World Cup 2011, Mike Hussey, Selector
