No pressure on players for quick Test return
Brydon Coverdale
December 2, 2014
Australia v India
Dec 9-13: 1st Test, Adelaide Oval
Dec 17-21: 2nd Test, Gabba
Dec 26-30: 3rd Test, MCG
Jan 6-10: 4th Test, SCG
Cricket Australia chief executive James Sutherland has said it will be up to individual players whether they feel ready for the first Test, which begins in Adelaide next Tuesday, six days after Phillip Hughes is laid to rest in his home town of Macksville.
A reworked four-Test schedule for the Australia-India series was released late on Monday night, with the Adelaide Test brought forward by three days and the Brisbane Test slotted in second. The fixture was developed in conjunction with the Australian Cricketers' Association and the BCCI.
Australia's players are expected to enter camp on Thursday - the day after Hughes' funeral - to begin preparations for the Adelaide Test. There is no question the match, at Hughes' adopted home ground, will be emotional for the Australians, and Sutherland said it would be up to each player to decide whether he felt ready to return to Test cricket so soon after farewelling Hughes.
"Absolutely up to the individual," Sutherland said. "Any player that is not comfortable or doesn't feel right, or there is medical advice to suggest that they're not quite right, then we will obviously understand that and I'm sure the broader public will understand that as well.
"Right now, there's a funeral tomorrow and let's understand that's going to be difficult enough as it is. There'll be a great temptation for people to speculate about who's going to play and how they're feeling. I'd just encourage everyone to give the players their space and let them in their own way work through that.
"Understand that we and the ACA will be supporting them, and no one will think ill of anyone who feels uncomfortable about it. Test cricket is a different game. It's not just going out there and playing a game of sport for a couple of hours. You need to go out there and commit to five days. You need to front up day after day after day. It's a big step and it's not just an ordinary sporting match."
The Adelaide Test will be the first in a rigorous new schedule that effectively has the Adelaide, Brisbane and Melbourne matches all back-to-back, before a slightly longer break ahead of the Sydney Test in January. The new fixture means that Melbourne's Boxing Day Test is the only one to retain its original dates.
"There's nothing perfect about what we've come up [with] here but we appreciate everyone's support and understanding in these tragic and extraordinary circumstances," Sutherland said. "The schedule will inconvenience a lot of people. We understand that. But we very much hope that in light of these extraordinary circumstances that everyone can see the big picture."
The tight nature of the original schedule meant there was a very real chance the Brisbane Test could have been cancelled entirely - Sutherland said such a move "was close". However, he said at no stage did Cricket Australia feel under pressure from broadcasters to deliver the full four-Test series or worry about compensation if the Gabba Test did not go ahead.
"It's been remarkable to talk to our commercial partners," Sutherland said. "I've had conversations with chief executives of our commercial partners including broadcasters, who have said 'we completely understand the circumstances you are in, we should be the last ones you worry about, just get it done, do whatever you've got to do to work it through but don't feel any pressure from us'. I think that's been magnificent."
Several of Australia's players have returned to light training with their states over the past two days. Josh Hazlewood bowled in the nets in Sydney on Monday, while most of his New South Wales team-mates kept to fitness training. Ryan Harris was bowling in the nets in Brisbane on Tuesday. The ACA and Cricket Australia will ensure all the players have access to support over the coming days, including counselling and sports psychologists.
Michael Clarke flew to Macksville on Monday morning and Sutherland was speaking at Sydney Airport on Tuesday morning, en route to the town himself. The funeral for Hughes will be held at 2pm on Macksville and will be broadcast live on Channel Nine, ABC News 24 TV, ABC Radio and Fairfax Radio.
India will be represented at the funeral by players Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and M Vijay, team director Ravi Shastri, coach Duncan Fletcher and team manager Arshad Ayub
