Aaron Finch to quit as captain of Melbourne Renegades
Newly-crowned T20 World Cup winner Aaron Finch is set to stand down from one of his high profile captaincy roles to focus on family.
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Aaron Finch is set to walk away from the Melbourne Renegades captaincy only days after leading Australia to a historic Twenty20 World Cup title.
Finch, 35, will on Thursday unveil the trophy at the MCG in a celebration that has been 14 years in the making for the T20 success-starved Aussies.
Semi-final heroes Matthew Wade and Marcus Stoinis as well as Glenn Maxwell, the man who hit the winning runs in Monday’s final against New Zealand, will also show off the silverware at the 10am ‘G party.
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Cricket Australia is all-in on Finch as its white-ball captain and wants the Victorian at the helm when Australia looks to defend the crown at next year’s home T20 World Cup, with the MCG already booked to host the final.
The brilliant opener – who also led Australia to the semi-final at the 2019 ODI World Cup – will have the rare chance to defend a World Cup at his home ground next November.
But News Corp can reveal that Finch no longer wants to captain his Big Bash League club after nine seasons at the helm.
Finch became a father for the first time in September and wants to dedicate more time to wife Amy and newborn daughter Esther while remaining committed to leading the Aussies.
Finch has been the poster boy for the Renegades ever since the club was launched in 2011 and replaced Andrew McDonald as skipper in just the second BBL season.
It is understood that recruit Nic Maddinson will replace Finch as captain after a year of maturity that has him on the brink of an Ashes call-up.
Maddinson, 29, will captain his third BBL club after short stints leading Sydney Sixers and Melbourne Stars when regular skippers Moises Henriques and Glenn Maxwell were unavailable.
Maddinson has long boasted sharp tactical nous and cricket knowledge that has not been appreciated outside of his dressing rooms.
But the maturity he has shown in the past 12 months has Renegades bosses confident he is the right choice as the club’s permanent leader.
Victorian coach Chris Rogers said Maddinson had risen to a new level this domestic season.
“You get to the second half of your career and you start to look at things differently,” Rogers said on Wednesday.
“You think more about the game and how you’re structuring your innings and you’ve probably balanced your personal life out a bit better as well.
“He just seems really calm.
“At times when I watched him bat it was almost a mode of trying to get to 20 quickly and then settling in, but the innings I’ve seen this year it’s just been completely calm from ball one and he’s looked like a senior player.
“That doesn’t come easily, that takes a lot of time and a lot of experience.”
Finch is likely to reveal his BBL captaincy bombshell at Thursday’s World Cup celebration at the MCG.
The T20 World Cup triumph was a hit on Fox Sports and Kayo with an average audience of 263,000 for Aussie matches.
That figure was up 128 per cent on the 2016 T20 World Cup despite most games, including Monday’s final, beginning at 1am AEDT
Australia’s incredible captaincy commitment to Finch
Cricket powerbrokers have backed in Aaron Finch to lead Australia’s World Cup title defence in 12 months time, and even beyond.
Finch turns 35 on Wednesday and by his own admission did not make the impact with the bat he would have liked to at the tournament, particularly in the big knockout matches.
But his leadership is so highly regarded by Cricket Australia, bosses have endorsed him for not only the T20 World Cup in Australia in 12 months’ time, but also the 2023 ODI World Cup as well.
While a succession plan has been heavily talked about for Test captain Tim Paine, who was only given a one-year deal by CA, there has been no such discussion around a successor for Finch who is understood to be on a two-year central contract.
Finch is not the type to make excuses and after the final nobly put his hand up for criticism over his low World Cup scores. But it’s understood he was still experiencing discomfort with his knee, having returned straight from surgery for the tournament.
The willingness to silently play through the pain barrier when the scrutiny was on him is just one example of the leadership which has Cricket Australia confident he can still be captaining their white ball sides in two years’ time.
Tim Michell is joined by cricket journos Ben Horne and Robert ‘Crash’ Craddock to review Australia’s World T20 win over New Zealand and discuss what it means for The Ashes.
Paine has received most of the plaudits for taking the reins after Sandpapergate, but Finch is held in equally high regard by those calling the shots.
With the 2023 ODI World Cup scheduled for October in India, Finch could be still at the helm as a 37-year-old.
“Aaron has done a fantastic job leading the white ball teams over the last few years,” said CA’s head of team performance, Ben Oliver.
“He got the team together for this campaign and he should be incredibly proud of the results that he’s been able to achieve. I’m sure he’s looking forward to the next home T20 World Cup and then the 50-over World Cup beyond that.
“He is highly experienced and he was very cool, calm and collected through this campaign.
“His leadership, his captaincy were integrity to this outcome and we’re looking forward to that continuing.”
Finch had an uncharacteristically lean year for Australia – although he was clearly impacted by issues he was having with his eye sight and then knee.
But overall his international record is very strong, and CA weren’t concerned by his World Cup offerings at the top of the order – with future plans still built around him opening with close friend, David Warner.
“He’s one of the best T20 players in the world and has captained this team incredibly well. I thought his experience shone through throughout the different situations that the team was in,” said Oliver.
“It was a challenging campaign, some different conditions and some really even teams across the tournament. Six or seven teams probably could have won it.”
Australian World Cup organisers are expecting next year’s tournament on home soil to be even bigger following on from the success of Finch’s team, with nothing settled on free-to-air television coverage for the 2022 blockbuster.
Finch was part of the Australian team that won the 50-over World Cup on home soil – walking a lap of honour in front of 100,000 fans at the MCG – and now he has the chance to do it again as captain.
The skipper said being the first man to lead Australia to a T20 World Cup was a dream come true.
“It’s awesome, it really is,” said Finch.
“There’s been so much talk about this being the one that’s been elusive to Australia, and to be fair we’ve probably underperformed in the past if we’re being honest with ourselves.
“We’ve had some great teams along the way, this team is pretty special.
“The camaraderie, the way everyone really cares for each other and looks after each other, looks out for each other is pretty special so it’s awesome. It’s brilliant and it’s great for Australian cricket.”
Too old, too slow: Warner, wife, silence critics
When everyone else was tipping the demise of David Warner, Aaron Finch had his own prediction.
“Without a word of a lie, I promise you I called Justin Langer a few months ago and I said, ‘don’t worry about Davey,” Finch said.
“He’ll be man of the tournament.”
Finch’s prophecy was fulfilled on Sunday night, as Warner belted 53 off 38 in what will stand as one of the greatest knocks in a glittering career which has featured 43 international hundreds.
Warner was sensationally axed by his IPL franchise in the lead-up to the World Cup, and came into the tournament having barely facing a ball since April.
Some, including Finch himself, felt Australian spinner Adam Zampa should have in fact been crowned man of the tournament, for his 13 wickets at a very tidy rate bowling in the crucial middle overs.
But it’s hard to argue with Warner’s late show to claim the gong given he scored 89 not out in a do-or-die final group game against the West Indies, 49 in the semi-final against tournament favourites West Indies and then a half century in the final chasing an imposing target of 173.
Cricket’s ultimate street fighter showed it’s a perilous business to write off ‘The Bull’.
“He’s a great player. He’s one of the all-time great batters,” lauded Finch.
“And he’s a fighter. He’s someone who, when his back is against the wall, that’s when you get the very, very best of David Warner.
“It was a special finish to the tournament for him the last couple of knocks.”
Candice Warner revealed at the start of the tournament that she had even “had a go” at a fellow parent at school pick-up who was part of the chorus of voices doubting her husband’s ability to bounce back, aged 35.
As Warner celebrated in the Australian dug-out, his wife had a message back home for the army of critics.
“Out of form, too old and slow! Congratulations,” she tweeted with a laughing emoji.
Out of form, too old and slow! 😳🤣 congratulations @davidwarner31pic.twitter.com/Ljf25miQiM
— Candice Warner (@CandiceWarner31) November 14, 2021
Warner’s blazing form to drive Australia to their maiden T20 World Cup victory does shine a light on his treatment by Sunrisers Hyderabad.
The left-hander has been one of the franchise’s greatest every players, yet was quickly and brutally ushered out once the chips were down.
Warner admits he did have to fight hard to get his touch back after such a long drought and revealed he practised himself into the World Cup.
“I always felt really well. Obviously two practice matches didn’t get much time in the middle but it was about going back to basics and getting back on hard synthetic wickets to actually train and hit volumes of balls … (in the end) I got out here and scored some runs,” said Warner.
The veteran now has the rare ODI and T20 World Cup double and says he’s finding it hard to split the achievements.
“This is definitely up there with 2015 being part of the World Cup … the (T20) World Cup final we lost against England a decade ago really hurt,” he said.
“These guys are absolutely a great bunch of guys, we’ve got great support staff, a great team and great support at home and around the world.
“I’m always pumped. I just wanted to put on a great spectacle for everyone at the venue and back at home. We were able to deliver it today.”
Josh Hazlewood (3-16) and Zampa (1-26) were the pick of Australia’s bowlers for the entire tournament and delivered in the clutch moment of a final.
New Zealand still managed to fight itself to a big total thanks to captain Kane Williamson (85 off 48), but Hazlewood could not have done any more to bring his Test match consistency to T20 level, having been controversially left out of Australia’s 2019 ODI World Cup.
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