Starc cleared but may still miss test
Mitchell Starc has received good news on the injury front but Australia’s spearhead may yet endure more Boxing Day heartbreak.
Starc returned home on crutches after bowling under duress on days four and five of the WACA Test, having helped his side claim an unassailable 3-0 lead in the Ashes with a resounding victory over England.
The right-foot injury was assessed in Sydney yesterday, with the paceman cleared of serious injury. Scans confirmed team doctors’ early diagnosis that the left-armer has a bruised heel rather than a stress fracture.
Starc will link with the 13-man squad in Melbourne tomorrow but is no certainty to play the fourth test that starts next Wednesday.
The painful injury requires rest and he has limited time to prove his fitness in the nets.
Coach Darren Lehmann and medical staff will make the final call and they’ll be understandably cautious given Starc’s importance to the side during the looming tour of South Africa. Steve Smith’s Ashes-winning Australian team will collect a bonus of nearly A$1 million if they can complete a 5-0 whitewash of England in the final two matches of the test series in Melbourne and Sydney.
The Australians left Perth on Tuesday glowing after reaching an unassailable 3-0 lead with a comprehensive victory in the third test, regaining the title they surrendered in England in 2015.
The result automatically triggered a $432,000 (NZ$473,000) series-win bonus and the members of the squad stand to pocket further financial reward for winning back possession of the urn.
There is an additional pool of
The risk of playing with painkilling injections is twofold.
Starc may do more damage to the troublesome landing foot that forced him to return prematurely from this year’s test series in India - and miss the tour of Bangladesh but $438,000 (NZ$480,000) available to the Australians for match-win bonuses in the Ashes. They have already secured a majority of that by winning three out of the five matches but can grab the lot if they win the Boxing Day test in Melbourne and again in the first week of January in Sydney.
The bonuses were thrashed out during the long and bitterly fought pay negotiation between Cricket Australia and the Australian Cricketers’ Association that was resolved in August.
Under the terms of the new fiveyear memorandum of understanding, the players retained their guaranteed share of the game’s revenue, which is at its
also struggle to generate his trademark express pace and bounce.
Pat Cummins bowled with a bruised heel in Johannesburg on test debut in 2011. It developed into a bone stress injury and was the greatest during a home Ashes summer, and also won a new incentive scheme that offered lucrative reward for major series victories.
The richest of the bonuses under the new structure are available against opposition countries ranked in the top four on the International Cricket Council test rankings, as England were entering this series. And with match-win bonuses built in on top of players’ retainers and match payments, the five-test Ashes series provides an even greater opportunity to cash in.
The pending windfall provides more motivation for Smith’s side to sweep the tourists in the final two matches.
start of a six-year journey stacked with serious setbacks.
Jackson Bird, having been on drinks duty throughout the series, will play his first test of the summer if Starc misses out next week.
It would prove a bitter pill for Starc to swallow. He has played 39 tests since debuting in 2011, but only taken part in one MCG test because of form and fitness issues.
The Sydneysider was seething in 2012 when he was rotated out of the attack for the Boxing Day Test because of workload concerns.
Starc has already told skipper Steve Smith he will be playing at the MCG, where Australia will seek to continue their push for a whitewash.
❚ AAP