Ex-Oz keeper Healy hits out at decision to rest stars
By ANIMonday, February 7, 2011
SYDNEY - Former Australian wicketkeeper Ian Healy has criticized Cricket Australia for resting senior players Michael Clarke and Brett Lee for the seventh and final one-day international against Australia.
Healy, a member of Australian cricket’s hall of fame, said national selectors had done the wrong thing by Clarke and a sellout crowd in Perth by resting the star batsman and other key players for the final international match of the summer.
“I haven’t seen Cricket Australia this fragmented for a long time,” the Sydney Morning Herald quoted Healy, as saying.
“They’ve alienated some senior players, not just players in general, but senior players like Brett Lee and Michael Clarke,” Healy said during Channel Nine’s telecast.
“They’ve given the public some ammunition to have another go at Michael Clarke for wanting a rest even though it was 100 per cent the selectors that did it.”
Clarke, who has been out of form for much of the summer, was jeered in several matches last month but began turning the tide last Wednesday after a match-winning performance in Sydney.
“They’ve really robbed the affiliate, which is the WACA, of the best team playing here in Perth at a sellout match. They’re not happy either,” Healy said.
“Australian cricket’s got five coaches in that dressing room and they seem to be very powerless, too. I don’t know who’s pulling the strings on these decisions but it’s not synchronized for mine at all,” Healy said. (ANI)
