Coach McInnes: In reply to Daily Star article on A team tour

[chinaman]

Coach McInnes sent the following reply hoping to carify few things many have been asking about:

We had scheduled a tour to Australia in September as at that point in time Cricket Australia had agreed to a 4 year reciprocal tour arrangement with us involving their U19 and A teams. Since then (April) Cricket Australia have reviewed their internal focus and have taken funding away from their U19 program which has meant that this tour arrangement could not be upheld. It was on no part the fault of the BCB who had the tour budgeted for and prepared for. A team had not been released but a small squad had been prepared and many arrangements had been made, awaiting final confirmation from Cricket Australia.

Arranging tours is quite a challenging task as you are dealing with two national cricket bodies, who each have a large number of factors affecting each and every tour. We are doing our best to provide the most effective and productive playing schedule for players, while at the same time, trying to keep the domestic season free from representative cricket to ensure that majority of players are available, to ensure the strength of our domestic cricket.

The bright side is that the A team will play a 3 day match against New Zealand in October and then a series of one day and 4 day matches against the Sri Lankan Academy team in October. The exact dates for this is being confirmed with Sri Lanka at the moment. This squad will be announced soon and go into camp from about October 2nd.

In summary, the A team has not been forgotten and forms a very important part of our development process, hence the development of the senior HP squad.

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Some relevant links:

The Daily Star Article>> What about A cricket team
Discussion >> Can you Believe?

[Zephaniah]

However, Sutherland said that an elite international series was being considered for northern Australia in 2006, the details of which were being worked out. The series may include an Australia A side and up to three additional international A teams.

Source: No matches in Darwin and Cairns for two years