“No Joe Burns you aren’t the only one”: Adam Gilchrist calls out ridiculous decision of not allowing Steve Smith to play BBL finals

Adam Gilchrist: The legendary Australian cricketer fails to agree with the decision of not allowing Steve Smith to play BBL finals.

A decision around Australia Test vice-captain Steven Smith not getting the permission to take part in the finals of the ongoing 11th season of the Big Bash League hasn’t gone down well with fans and former and current cricketers.

Smith, 32, represents defending champions Sydney Sixers in the BBL but wasn’t part of their playing list this season due to his international commitments. With the postponement of Australia-New Zealand white-ball series, Smith was available and had expressed interest in playing the Perth Scorchers vs Sixers BBL 11 Qualifier at the Docklands Stadium tomorrow.

However, Australia’s premier batter across formats was denied a permission to play in the BBL after a couple of years due to recently formed rule around replacement players.

BBL 2021-22, which has suffered majorly due to a large number of players and support staff returning positive COVID-19 tests, had introduced an LRP (Local Replacement Player) pool. All COVID-related replacements in BBL 11 were to be selected from that pool. Smith, whose name wasn’t even in that pool, would have to be included by tinkering with a two-week old rule.

“In creating the central LRP pool, it was agreed that clubs would not be able to contract LRPs from outside the pool for the remainder of the season,” Cricket Australia said in a statement on Friday. “This request was denied … noting that other players returning to the BBL from international duty have been retained on club lists throughout the competition.”

Adam Gilchrist calls out ridiculous decision of not allowing Steve Smith to play BBL finals

CA’s decision has been severely criticized by Sixers captain Moises Henriques, Melbourne Stars batter Joe Burns, former England captain Michael Vaughan, former Australia batter Michael Hussey and former Australia wicket-keeper batter Adam Gilchrist.

Gilchrist took to social media platform Twitter to retweet Burns’ tweet. Burns, who labeled the decision to be “crazy”, strongly disagreed with CA not allowing a bankable face in Smith to play in the business end of BBL. Concurring with Burns, Gilchrist said that he’s not the only one who thinks this away about the whole episode.

In 24 BBL matches in over a decade, Smith has scored 619 runs at an average of 32.58 and a strike rate of 129.23 including five half-centuries.