Panel gets bowled a curveball

IT isn’t your traditional selection headache but Trevor Hohns and his panel face a major challenge this month as they seek to settle a Test squad in one of Australian cricket’s most uncertain hours.

Chairman of selectors Hohns and coach Darren Lehmann are among the many stakeholders desperate for an end to the pay scrap between Cricket Australia (CA) and the Australian Cricketers’ Association (ACA).

The previous Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) expired on June 30. Players and administrators are at war but both parties have tried to keep things as close to “business as usual” as possible.

Some 230 players are unemployed but none have walked off the job. State players continue to slog it out in preseason training.

A cancelled Australia A tour that should have started in South Africa yesterday is the biggest casualty so far.

It also made life harder for selectors Hohns, Greg Chappell and Lehmann, who will soon return to Australia from holidays in England.

The selection panel is yet to decide which bowler will be added to the 13-man squad that was picked for the upcoming tour of Bangladesh.

Mitchell Starc is unavailable because of a foot injury.

The two four-day clashes in South Africa were meant to be a virtual bowl-off between pacemen Jackson Bird, Chadd Sayers, Jason Behrendorff and Chris Tremain.