Andrew McDonald insists Australia’s Twenty20 World Cup defence will not be impacted by a raft of off-field headlines and possible pre-tournament distractions.
Australia are vying to become the first team in T20 history to defend a World Cup crown, with their chances helped significantly by home-ground advantage.
But in the past week the team has had to deal with several off-field matters, stemming from Cricket Australia’s annual general meeting and sponsorship issues.
Pat Cummins was announced as the country’s new one-day captain on Tuesday, with his appointment overshadowed by his decision not to appear in Alinta Energy ads.
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Cummins’ strong stance on environmental sustainability prompted CA to put out a statement denying he had any influence with Alinta’s sponsorship ending next year.
(Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)
The issue also coincided with CA’s board recommending the organisation’s code of conduct be rewritten, allowing David Warner’s own lifetime leadership ban to be reviewed.
It has made for a week of headlines in the build-up to Australia’s opening clash with New Zealand being about more off-field matters than on-field.
“It looks a lot different on the inside to what it looks like on the outside,” McDonald insisted.
“We’ve got a task at hand and that is to get the players ready for the first game. The thing that has consumed us the most is injured players returning.
“You have seen in the lead-up we’ve had to not take certain players to certain venues because of the risk of injury or returning.
“So we have had our own internal battles as opposed to what is happening on the outside. Our focus is firmly on that first game.”
McDonald also maintained that the team’s heavy workload would not be an issue, claiming it had been of benefit as the likes of Marcus Stoinis and Mitch Marsh returned from injury.
Captain Aaron Finch raised eyebrows on Saturday when he admitted the group was “a little bit tired”, after series against Zimbabwe, New Zealand, India, West Indies and England in the lead up.
Australia have also toured India in that time, while they also must complete the most travel of any team during the group stage of the World Cup while playing in Sydney, Perth, Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide.
“What I will say around that is the extra fixtures allowed us some game time to get players back into the tempo of playing T20 cricket,” McDonald said.
“When you first looked at it, it was ‘how do we work through this?’
(Photo by Darrian Traynor/Getty Images)
“But it has actually worked in our favour. Because of the injuries we have had and when we had them to bring players back.”
Australia will resist any urge to rush Cameron Green into the team for their Twenty20 World Cup opener against New Zealand, even if he is called into the wider squad to replace Josh Inglis.
A “gutted” Inglis was officially ruled out of the World Cup on Thursday, after the back-up wicketkeeper suffered a freak hand injury while playing golf a day earlier.
Officials were still weighing up who to bring into the squad on Thursday afternoon, and if another back-up keeper was required in case Matthew Wade got hurt.
Alex Carey, Ben McDermott and Josh Philippe loom as possible back-up glovemen, while Green and quick Nathan Ellis are the other possible options for extra depth elsewhere.
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