‘He was unavailable’ says Graeme Smith; Chris Morris calls it a breakdown in communication

Cricket South Africa, currently under the stewardship of Director and former captain Graeme Smith, announced the T20 World Cup squad that will be in the UAE when the tournament begins. Temba Bavuma was named captain, which raised some eyebrows as Faf du Plessis did make himself available for the shortest format, in the eyes of […]
 
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‘He was unavailable’ says Graeme Smith; Chris Morris calls it a breakdown in communication

Cricket South Africa, currently under the stewardship of Director and former captain Graeme Smith, announced the T20 World Cup squad that will be in the UAE when the tournament begins. Temba Bavuma was named captain, which raised some eyebrows as Faf du Plessis did make himself available for the shortest format, in the eyes of the public. Another major absentee was Chris Morris, who didn’t make to even to the reserves.

Chris Morris explained that there was a mishap in the communication between both parties, also pointing that there were no harsh feelings. “It’s a case of a massive breakdown in communication,” Morris said on Thursday about his continued absence from the national side. “Once I said no to the 3TC game, all communications broke down after that.”

“There are no hard feelings. I was pissed off for a few months, but I got over it. Now I’m just looking forward to watching my mates perform well in the World Cup, I genuinely believe South Africa has a good chance of winning it,” he said.

“Chris was unavailable, Faf didn’t fit in” – Graeme Smith

Explaining his side of the story, Graeme Smith mentioned that it was difficult to find balance within the side if Faf du Plessis had been there. With Chris Morris, he mentioned that the all-rounder made himself unavailable which is why they couldn’t go ahead with him.

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‘He was unavailable’ says Graeme Smith; Chris Morris calls it a breakdown in communication

He also explained himself a little with the selection in spin department, citing that the current crop of spinners, Keshav Maharaj, Tabraiz Shamsi and Bjorn Fortuin, were doing a decent enough job, which is why Imran Tahir, despite his great form recently across different leagues, wasn’t considered.

“When you are working with free agents you have to come together. You have to find the balance that works for the team and the squad and then also the free agents. With Faf we struggled to find that balance and outside that, Chris made himself unavailable and from there we felt Imran had a great run, he is still being successful but we are confident in the current crop of spinners we are developing and we felt we should give them the opportunity,” Graeme Smith said.