Holding out hope
WITH four games left on the schedule, George Bailey’s Sheffield Shield season isn’t over just yet, with scans on the Tasmanian’s injured right shoulder leaving open the possibility for a return before the last two matches.
THERE is still hope George Bailey’s season is not over after scans on the veteran’s shoulder came back as good as possible.
Bailey dislocated his right shoulder fielding during the Hurricanes loss to the Melbourne Stars in the Big Bash League semi-finals at Blundstone Arena.
Initial fears were his Sheffield Shield season was over but Tigers coach Adam Griffith said while Bailey, 36, would miss at least the next fortnight, there was hope he would be back before the campaign ended.
Tasmania, sits in fifth spot with four games to play, but has only one win fewer than top of the table Victoria.
Griffith said Bailey, the former Tigers and Australian white-ball skipper, was no chance for the next two to three weeks, ruling him out of away games against South Australia and Victoria, but could be back for selection for home games against Western Australia (starting March 14) or NSW (starting March 20).
“George sounded pretty optimistic,” Griffith said. “He was in at training this morning with a smile on his face.
“Obviously it is not a great thing for him but we are not ruling him out for the end of the season.
“We’ll see how it plays out, the next two weeks are very important with how it settles down and doing some strength work on it.
“In George’s favour he can throw left-handed so throwing right arm is not an issue for him. If we can get him back we’ll look to manage it as best as we can, but the next two weeks are really important.”
Bailey’s possible return and D’Arcy Short’s second straight player of the tournament award were the positives following the Hurricanes’ semifinal loss to the Stars.
Short, who is heading to India as part of the national squad, again led the competition run scorers with 637 runs at 53.1 and a strike rate of 140.6, but also chipped in with 10 wickets and an economy rate of eight an over with his improving left-arm wrist spin.
Griffith said the batting allrounder would be a big plus for Australia’s 50-over World Cup squad later this year.
“He’s got the ability with the bat,’ he said. “His left-arm leg spin became very important to us.
“He became an actual option to bowl four overs. At the start of the tournament we thought it we could get one or two overs out of him as a change up that would be really good but he came into our plans continually to bowl.”
In the umpire-voted award, Short finished on 41 votes, ahead of Stars’ all-rounder Marcus Stoinis (32 votes) and Short’s opening partner Matthew Wade (28).