I’LL DECIDE AFTER BBL
GEORGE Bailey hopes to decide his future with Tasmania after the upcoming Big Bash League season.
The former captain stepped down as skipper after seven summers in charge before the Sheffield Shield win over SA after a miserable start to the season with the bat.
Speaking publicly for the first time since the announcement, the 36-year-old former Australian Test batsman and one-day and T20 captain told the Mercury he already felt reenergised by handing over the reins to Matt Wade.
“I’m not really sure yet but I imagine at the end of the Big Bash hopefully I’ll have four more shield games and a final to weigh up and we’ll go from there,” Bailey said.
“I’ve got one more year of Hurricanes post this regardless anyway. At this stage, that would be the goal [to play out the season]. I think I’ll have more clarity around that at the end of the Big Bash.”
Bailey said the end of his tenure had been long discussed with coach Adam Griffith, but now felt like the right time.
He said his form, that saw him average just 5.6 across the first four games before scores of 28 and 65 against the Redbacks, was an issue, but far from the only consideration in the decision.
Bailey is now a father of two, moved into a new house in greater Hobart and is just about to complete his masters in business administration.
“It just got to a point where certainly form was a factor but just where I was at in life in terms of trying to balance fam- ily and outside interests, I just thought it was time for someone else,” he said.
“That was the other thing that made it easy was I think we’ve got lots of great leaders in our team and around our changeroom at the moment.
“I wanted to play some cricket where I wasn’t captain, as long as it wasn’t to the detriment of the incumbent captain. I felt that would be a great way to finish without that extra responsibility, that is where it is at.”
Bailey said now the goal was to make runs for the Tigers and the Hurricanes in the upcoming BBL season and turn his form around.
“I’ve been working my backside off to try and find that form and will continue to do so,” Bailey said. “That’s how badly I was going, I got 20 and 60 and people are saying I’m back in the runs. “That hardly satisfies me. “It is just something I am fighting with.
“It is in as much in my head as anything else, but it was nice to get a couple of runs in a partnership with Jordan [Silk] that helped set up an important victory for us.”
The Tigers take on Queensland in a Sheffield Shield match at Blundstone Arena starting tomorrow, losing Tim Paine to the Australian Test team, opeining the door for Charlie Wakim and Sean Willis to make their first-class debuts. The team is: Matthew Wade (captain ), George Bailey, Gabe Bell, Jackson Bird, Alex Doolan, Jake Doran, Ben McDermott, Riley Meredith, Simon Milenko, Alex Pyecroft, Jordan Silk, Charlie Wakim, Sean Willis.