Michael Hussey

World Cup 2011

Ponting hopes Hussey's exclusion won't hurt

Michael Hussey

Ricky Ponting hopes Australia's decision to leaveMichael Hussey at home due to doubts over his hamstring injury won't cost them dearly later in the World Cup. The national selectors nearly faced an embarrassing situation after Hussey trained so well in Perth that Western Australia wanted to pick him for their Sheffield Shield match, which started on Monday.

That was the same day Australia kicked off their World Cup campaign, and while the batsmen did enough to help set up a victory over Zimbabwe, Hussey's quick scoring in the middle order could have been very useful. In the end, Hussey reportedly called the Western Australia coach Mickey Arthur and decided against playing at the WACA.

But it was a close call, and it would not looked good had Australia's highest-ranked ODI batsman been playing Sheffield Shield cricket instead of the World Cup opener. And the selector Greg Chappell confirmed on Monday that under the ICC rules, Hussey would not be allowed to rejoin the squad, even if another player was injured later in the competition.

"Hopefully it won't come back and hurt us at all," Ponting said after the win over Zimbabwe. "We've got what we've got now, with the squad. We understand that Mike was disappointed not to be in this squad in the first place and we're disappointed for him as well.

"But all we can do now is move forward and move on with the squad of players that we've got and do the best that we can to try to get ourselves into the semi-final stage of this event. We hope that Mike does make a speedy recovery and he is back playing cricket again soon. The medicos and our selectors felt he wasn't fit enough to come away on the tour."

Hussey had surgery five weeks ago to reattach a hamstring tendon that tore off the bone during the opening ODI against England, and the selectors did not want to risk taking an unfit player to the World Cup. But at training in Perth on Sunday, he impressed the Western Australian staff so much that he was named to play against Tasmania, before the decision was changed.

Adding to the drama were reports that Chappell had told Hussey that he should consider retirement rather than trying to force his way back into the Australian team. Australia generally base their selections on Ashes and World Cup cycles, and it's unlikely Hussey, who is now 35, will be part of the next battle for the urn or the next World Cup campaign, but Chappell denied the reports.

"That's untrue," Chappell told reporters in Melbourne. "In the nets [on Sunday] he was pretty excited by the way he pulled up, but in discussions between Cricket Australia medical staff and West Australian medical staff, they decided it was probably imprudent to try and rush it. They decided to stick to the original plan - try and play some club cricket on the weekend and resume on March 3. They jointly agreed to stick to that plan."

Hussey is the only Australian ranked in the ICC's top ten ODI batsmen, sitting in fourth position behind Hashim Amla, AB de Villiers and Virat Kohli. If Australia need a replacement batsman during the rest of the World Cup, they will probably look to Shaun Marsh, although he is still struggling with a hamstring injury of his own, while another option would be Adam Voges.

Brydon Coverdale is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo