Canes sticking with one import

THE ladder-leading Hurricanes have shelved the hunt for a second import — for now.

Since English quick Tymal Mills’ forced withdrawal on the eve of the tournament, the Hurricanes have had Jofra Archer as their sole import.

Cricket Tasmania thought it had secured the services of NZ international Glenn Phillips for Monday night’s win over the Melbourne Stars, only for it to fall over at the last minute when Cricket New Zealand refused to release the keeper-batsman.

CT chief executive Nick Cummins said the organisation had plenty of faith in the squad that had taken the Hurricanes to six wins and one loss and the top of the BBL08 ladder.

“All the players we’ve looked at are kind of second-tier county cricketers, basically players who aren’t playing internation- al cricket, and so our view is well why don’t we just back our squad?” Cummins said. “We will just monitor if there are issues around unavailability near the end of the tournament, then we may look at it then which there may well be so.”

He said the Hurricanes were not going to sign someone just for the sake of it. “It would have to be a very good T20 bowler or batsman to come in because we believe in the batting of Alex Doolan, Jake Doran, Caleb Jewell or from a bowling perspective Tom Rogers, David Moody and Aaron Summers that we’ve got guys who deserve a go next,” he said.

“If AB de Villiers or Trent Boult were available then that would be different, but they’re not. We are just going to stick with the squad we’ve got.”

The Hurricanes’ next match is tomorrow night against the Scorchers in Perth.