FAULKNER GETS HIS CHANCE
Coach Griffith backs forgotten star to rediscover his best form
THE Tigers are backing forgotten all-rounder James Faulkner to bounce back to his matchwinning best after spending the past summer in the wilderness.
Faulkner played his last first-class game in early November as he was overlooked for the Tigers’ run to the Sheffield Shield campaign because of his inability to get through four days of cricket on his dodgy knee.
But Tigers coach Adam Griffith believes Faulkner can get back to the form that saw him be the man of the match in the 2015 World Cup final and play a Test for Australia.
“I just see the excitement in his eye and the glint in his eye and I’m really confident that there is a lot of cricket left in James,” Griffith said.
“I think we’ve got a really good handle on what those physical issues are now.
“It was always a little bit unsure of what it actually was and how bad it was, but I think we’ve got a really good take on it now and how to prepare him as best we can.”
The Tigers released their contract list for 2018-19 with three Tasmanians and two New South Welshmen added to the list while some regular names, such as Ben Dunk and Cameron Boyce, were axed.
Boyce, who still had a year to go on his contract, left by mutual consent with young spinner Jarrod Freeman upgraded to a rookie, while Dunk was left off for purely form issues. South HobartSandy Bay quick Hamish Kingston has earned his third crack at the Tigers with a full contract, while former Australian one-day quick Gurinder Sandhu and Australian under-19s pace bowler Lawrence Neil-Smith have both been recruited from NSW.
Griffith said he expected reigning Ricky Ponting medallist George Bailey to continue as captain but said a plan for a transition would be discussed.
“I think he’s been the best captain in the country for a long time now and we’d be silly to walk away from that where we are at the moment,” Griffith said.
“We are still building this group and we’ve still got a lot of development and learning to go. I can’t see a reason why he wouldn’t captain this year but that decision hasn’t been made yet.
“I know at some stage in his career he wants to do that and free himself up and as part of our succession planning the next person who comes in it would be great to have George around for a period of time to help ease that person into the role. That will come at some stage, when we’ve still got to work that out.”