The star performer of the Indian Premier League 2014 season reveals he gave up on an Australia call-up while representing Hampshire in 2012
Glenn Maxwell and his partner Jayne Egeberg at the Allan Border Medal awards at Melbourne in 2013
Australian batsman Glenn Maxwell, the toast of the seventh edition of the Indian Premier League, nearly made himself available for arch-rivals England.
Glenn Maxwell and his partner Jayne Egeberg at the Allan Border Medal awards at Melbourne in 2013
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The Sydney Morning Herald reported that Kings XI Punjab's batting star toyed with the idea to play first-class cricket in England through a UK passport courtesy his dad's England heritage in 2012, the year he played for Hampshire's second XI.
"I was playing T20s there and a bit of second XI cricket. They said, 'You can go in front of the judge and say that you're English and that you have no ambition to play for Australia. I was like, 'Well, that's fine, I don't think I'm going to be playing for Australia any time soon anyway, it doesn't bother me.'
"The Hampshire coach, Giles White, actually talked me out of it; said we don't want to take that risk with you just in case something happens," Maxwell was quoted as saying on Saturday.
His Australia call-up came three months later when he was picked in the limited-overs series squad against Pakistan as well as the World T20 in Sri Lanka.
Maxwell also revealed that he was surprised that Australia coach Darren Lehmann criticised him in public for failing to be there till the end in an ODI against England at Perth earlier this year. "Our blokes - and Maxwell - he's got to understand, we've got to play better cricket," Lehmann had said.
No grudges
Not that Maxwell holds a grudge. "It was about me being smarter in certain situations in one-day cricket. The spray was deserved. I didn't expect it to come out publicly but that's the way he goes about it," he said.
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