Smith reassesses CPL offer amid match fitness fears

THE Caribbean Premier League didn’t offer extra cash or unique arrangements to change Steve Smith’s mind and convince him to sign up, only the carrot of time in the middle.

The West Indies is the next stop in Smith and David Warner’s redemption tour, with the suspended duo taking part in the Twenty20 tournament that starts on Thursday (Australian time) and runs until September 16.

Warner, who will feature in the CPL opener, agreed to join St Lucia almost a month ago.

Smith effectively decided to skip the competition, valuing downtime as he and partner Dani Willis finalise wedding preparations, but was snapped up by Barbados last week.

“It was a relatively late change of heart but there weren’t any financial incentives,” Pete Russell, the CPL’s chief operating officer, said.

“In consultation with his manager and wife-to-be, I think they decided he just needed playing time. He wanted to play hard cricket, get back into the swing of it and also fly under the radar.

“You don’t get hassled by anybody in the Caribbean, that was a large part of it. If this were an opportunity in England for example, there’d be more of that.”

Brisbane Heat’s ‘bash brothers’ Chris Lynn and Brendon McCullum, South Africa veteran Hashim Amla and fiery Pakistani paceman Wahab Riaz are among the other internationals joining the West Indies’ best in the sixth edition of the event. It will be the highest standard Smith and Warner, both aiming to return for Australia at the 2019 World Cup, have played since the Cape Town cheating scandal.

The batsmen are serving year-long bans from internationals plus domestic cricket at home.

The Sydney grade season starts on September 22 and will be the pair’s next assignment after the CPL.

Smith and Warner are expected to be among the CPL’s top earners, but it will be a skerrick of the $2.4 million they were each set to pocket from this year’s Indian Premier League.

Those IPL contracts were torn up because of the balltampering furore.