Australian batsman Adam Voges has turned down the chance to play for his country to marry his sweetheart.
The 29-year-old Voges announced on Tuesday he had withdrawn from the Australian one-day team to tour South Africa in order to stay home and tie the knot.
“It’s a big thing to give up an opportunity to play for Australia,” he told reporters. “But I guess you only get married once and that’s important to me and a decision I’ve made and one that I’m comfortable with.”
Voges has played just one one-day international and three Twenty20s for Australia and had already booked his wedding date long before his surprise inclusion in the team for South Africa.
When he realised the second match of the tour, on Apr. 5, clashed with his date at the alter, he asked the national selectors panel (NSP) whether he could return home between the first and third matches.
But Australia’s chairman of selectors Andrew Hilditch said the panel would not allow him to return home midway through a series and Voges had to choose one or the other.
Marcus North, who is already in South Africa with the test squad, has been chosen to replace Voges. North is a close friend of Voges and was invited to his wedding.
“It means there’ll be one less at the wedding,” Voges joked.
PHOTO: Adam Voges smiles after being selected for the Australian Cricket Squad in Perth Dec. 8, 2006. REUTERS
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Interesting, very interesting, especially as Aussie cricketers have a reputation for being bloody-minded when it comes to choosing their sport or family.
- Posted by TomA not too dissimilar thing happened during England’s tour of the West Indies, when keeper Matt Prior flew home for the birth of his baby, missing the fourth test.
Former England batsman Geoffrey Boycott said on radio he thought Prior should be axed after that, for it showed he didn’t really want to play for his country. Boycott argued in the case of ill-health then cricket is irrelevant, but he was unable to accept Prior’s decision.
Oh well, one less Australian cricketer out of the way before the Ashes can only be a good thing.