da jogodeouro： The XXXX Queensland Bulls will commence their 2002-03 ING Cup season without the services of Stuart Law after he was omitted today from theteam for Sunday’s season opener against NSW at North Sydney Oval.
Queensland Cricket08-Oct-2002The XXXX Queensland Bulls will commence their 2002-03 ING Cup seasonwithout the services of Stuart Law after he was omitted today from theteam for Sunday’s season opener against NSW at North Sydney Oval.Law was the notable omission in today’s team, with the State selectorsopting to utilise young batsmen Lee Carseldine, Clinton Perren andBrendan Nash in the order alongside established players Jimmy Maher,Martin Love and Andrew Symonds.Queensland Chairman of Selectors Andrew Courtice said the decision hadbeen a difficult one but was “purely performance-based.””I’ve assured him that he will be considered for future one-dayselection on form like everyone else,” he said.”Obviously you feel sympathy when you make a decision to omit a playerfrom a team and particularly so when it is a player of Stuart’s stature.You are aware of the ramifications of a decision like this, but asselectors, you can’t let the sympathy you feel for a player influencethe decision-making process.””But it was a particularly tough choice, as two of the selectors in Pauland Dick have played a lot of cricket with Stuey and I have known himfor a long time.””We have spoken and I know he is very disappointed but he told me thathe will be doing his best to force his way in and that is what I hadhoped, and expected, to hear from him.”Courtice said the ING Cup selection was a separate issue from theselection of the Bulls’ Pura Cup team to play NSW at the Gabba nextweek.The Queensland team for the match starting on Wednesday will beannounced later this week”The four day team is a stand alone team – over the past few years wehave looked at the one-day and four-day as different sides, and Stuart’sselection prospects in the four day game will be judged on his four-dayform, as it is for all of the players.”Law, who stood down as Bulls captain at the end of last season afterleading Queensland to its five domestic championships in the past eightyears, expressed his disappointment at his omission.”I’m hurting right now, that’s no surprise,” he said today.”I went to England wanting to improve my one-day game because I felt Ihad been below par for a few seasons. I believed I worked it out overthere and averaged 50 plus in the one-day game for Lancashire.”I came back looking to putting that into practice without the burden ofcaptaincy under the new regime we have in place.”I’m not in this team but I haven’t played my last one day game forQueensland. Now I’ve got to keep working my backside off – keepimproving my cricket and not give up.”We’ve got a big season ahead and personally this is a hiccup, butteamwise it is an opportunity,” Law said.Law is Queensland’s most capped one-day player, with 71 matches, and thethird-leading runs-scorer with 1916 runs at 32.47. He holds the recordfor the fast one-day century in Australian domestic one day history (74balls) and has Queensland’s highest individual score of 159 (v Tas,1993-94).The Queensland team also includes young pace bowlers Scott Brant andDamien MacKenzie who made their first class and one day debuts for theBulls last season.XXXX Queensland Bulls v NSW Blues, ING Cup, Sunday, October 13: JimmyMaher (c), Martin Love, Lee Carseldine, Clinton Perren, Andrew Symonds,Brendan Nash, James Hopes, Wade Seccombe, Ashley Noffke, MichaelKasprowicz, Scott Brant, Damien MacKenzie (all 12 to play).