Cricket 2023: International T20 star Tim David set to play for local Perth cricket team this weekend

Tim David plays in some of the most lucrative T20 franchise leagues in the world and for Australia, but this weekend, it’s back to the park, playing local cricket in Perth.

Tim David playing for Australia in the 2022 T20 World Cup. Picture: Albert Perez/Getty Images

Australian middle order blaster Tim David is set to become one of the most expensive players to appear in a grade cricket match when he lines up for Perth side Claremont Nedlands this weekend.

David, 27, who featured in Australia’s white-ball tour of South Africa in August and September, is preparing to be part of the Aussies’ five-match Twenty20 series in India which begins just four days after the one-day World Cup final.

However such is his unusual place in the Australian cricket landscape, David does not have a state contract despite having recently qualified for a national deal.

The WA-local plays in the Big Bash for the Hobart Hurricanes and spends much of the year on the freelance T20 circuit.

Tim David plays in the IPL for Mumbai Indians. Picture: Punit Paranjpe/AFP

This Sunday he will return to his roots, with David set to line up for his club side in a WA Premier Cricket Twenty20 competition match against University at Perth’s Cresswell Park, playing largely against amateurs.

It is a far cry from his exploits in the lucrative global white-ball game.

David was in 2022 purchased by the Indian Premier League’s Mumbai Indians for $1.53 million AUD.

He surged into Australia’s squad for its ultimately unsuccessful T20 World Cup defence last year before being called up to the undermanned Aussies’ one-day side during the series against the Proteas.

Having triggered an automatic Cricket Australia contract upgrade in South Africa following regular appearance, David contemplated turning down the deal to retain greater autonomy but ultimately chose to accept the greater security of being centrally contracted.

Though unusual, David’s appearance in Premier Cricket is not unprecedented in recent years for an Australian player, with Glenn Maxwell having played sporadically for Fitzroy-Doncaster and Nathan Lyon returning from injury recently in Sydney Grade Cricket with Northern District.

Originally published as Cricket 2023: International T20 star Tim David set to play for local Perth cricket team this weekend