The Australian men’s captain, Aaron Finch, believes that the recovery of cricket from the coronavirus pandemic must take precedence over ODI and Test League commitments. He said the recent series cancellations against Bangladesh and Zimbabwe will hopefully be “offset” over the next decade.
National coach Justin Langer had already made it clear that his plans no longer included an ODI home series against Zimbabwe and was more geared towards the possibility of a white ball tour to England in September – even postponed from the original dates in July.
While there has been some cynicism in the past that Cricket Australia has shifted series against smaller nations – Bangladesh has pushed back or never played numerous series, Zimbabwe too – Finch insisted that the wider need to resume the game after Covid-19 , be placed before anything else.
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“The only thing that matters is being really flexible and doing everything necessary to make World Cricket work again and all countries are successful and have the best chance of being successful,” said Finch. “I think if you start to think of it as ‘we have to play against a certain opposition’ or something for your own improvement, a lot of things can fall off.
“In the short term, we just have to focus on making World Cricket work again and as many countries as possible are in great shape to keep up. I don’t think that’s right.” be all and end all is the point at which you end up in the ranking for a world championship or similar. I just think the health of the World Cricket is important and whatever it looks like that will be flexible and turn upside down quickly and there will be some teams that are likely to have a tougher challenge to get there, where they have to be
“But I think, let’s say, in the next 10 years it will all settle down by itself. It won’t be a big problem. We just have to play again and make sure we are Australian players.” and Cricket Australia, the ACA and everyone do everything to ensure that cricket is in as healthy a place as possible, and I know a lot of people are working really hard at the moment. “
“We just have to be really aware that we are extremely flexible. There could be a tour that takes place at relatively short notice because we can get there, and that would be great.”
Aaron Finch
Finch said that flexibility to play series much shorter than usual should be at the core of the national team’s mindset next year or so. “I think all countries will look at that,” he said. “What we really need to be aware of now is that only the best interests of all cricket players are supported, no matter whether Australia, India, England, South Africa, no matter in which country. I think we all have to take care of each other and it to do.” What is best for cricket?
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“That could mean a bit of short-term pain or not ideal scenarios for a particular country, but the fact that we all just have to get together for it to work for the benefit of the game, I think that’s the best.” It is important to remember that. We all want to play as much as possible, wherever we can, whatever we have to do to get the game going again, but it just comes down to the fact that there will be a lot and take a lot of compromises from one large number of stakeholders, so I think we need to be really flexible in this regard.
“It is obviously unfortunate that Zimbabwe is not coming and it is [the tour] has been postponed. I think everyone did their best to make it work. As cricketers, we always wanted to play, regardless of where it is or who it is against. Therefore, it is only in the best interest of cricket that everyone plays out there again. Unfortunately that was postponed. “
When asked if he knew when he would play a game next time, Finch said he was still not sure, although the planned England series played a big role in September. “To be honest, it is a bit in the air how quickly everything is changing in Australia,” he said. “”[In] Victoria – we are going in the other direction again: we had a small breakout, so we are not sure when our next game will take place.
“In our thoughts we were planning for Zimbabwe, we are planning for England and everything is going well, this England tour – I think that is what we are planning. In my thoughts I am preparing to go to England and play “Whether that happens – we’ll wait and see. We just have to be really aware that we’re extremely flexible – there could be a tour that is relatively short because we can get there, and that would be brilliant. Whatever I think all players are in the same boat. “
Looking to the future, Finch pointed out that Australia must try to plan future tournaments more extensively, suggesting that the 2019 World Cup campaign, despite reaching the semi-finals, was rushed to prepare by the Newlands scandal and Langers later appointment as trainer was forced.
“It’s difficult if you just go in and give it wings. I think you have to plan and prepare a lot,” said Finch. “Not so much for the day-to-day game, but I think the preparation that goes into planning your style of play will be what the trend of the game will be for you to succeed. It’s easy to say pop up and play Play and hope for the best, but if you can start to get a really structured plan as you think the game will be in three or two and a half years, whenever this world is from 2023 Cup, I’m talking 50-over- Format more than the 20-over.
“I think it is really important that you have a clear structure that you can fall back on. A kind of blueprint that you can fall back on. It helps a lot in choosing your team and the staff you have. We have probably left it last time it was too late. Apparently Justin came pretty late in the four-year cycle and we gave a really good fist, so we are determined to be very well-planned in this case to make sure we leave nothing unturned about where to go and where to go, strengths, weaknesses, what we can do to ensure that we are in the best place and have the best opportunity to win this World Cup. “
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