Big Bash: Banned spinner Chris Green ready to take first major step on road to redemption
Desperately pushing to play in the lucrative IPL and keep his Aussie World Cup dream alive, banned Sydney Thunder spinner Chris Green will test his action for the first time on Monday.
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Chris Green will subject himself to the clinical and definitive view of modern technology in Brisbane on Monday, as the Australian Twenty20 star takes the first major step towards trying to end his exile for chucking.
The talented spinner, who is desperately pushing to play in next month’s lucrative IPL and keep his dream alive for Australia’s World Cup campaign, will test his action for the first time since being banned midway through the Big Bash season.
News Corp Australia can reveal Green will hook himself up to censors at Cricket Australia’s high performance centre on Monday, in a bid to ensure the tweaks he has made to his suspect bowling technique are working and that he remains on track to pass a test to return to action when his 90-day suspension ends in early April.
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The degrees of change he needs to effect to make his action legal is a matter of millimeters, and so minor that the naked eye cannot pick it up.
Green has taken it upon himself to fly to Brisbane accompanied by one of his Sydney Thunder coaches and throw himself at the mercy of technology and has also taken out measures to ensure he doesn’t lose confidence in his time out of the game.
“I’ve done some work with the sport psych about moving on from the process to allow me to get back to playing,” Green said.
“I have a big lean when I bowl, so we’re just working on bringing that in. I don’t think I’ll get directly to vertical ever, it’s just the nature of how I’m made up and how my technique goes.
“The taller I can be at the crease the better it is, so we’re working on my alignment.”
Green has an IPL deal with the Kolkata Knight Riders and has been heavily backed in by high-profile coach of the franchise, Brendon McCullum.
The 26-year-old cannot undergo the test required to pass his action until the end of his 90-day ban, which began in early January when he failed a test.
Sydney Thunder were left to rue some costly dropped catches in their BBL grand final qualifier loss to the Melbourne Stars on Thursday night, with wicketkeeper Jay Lenton suffering the nightmare of grassing run machine Marcus Stoinis early in the innings.
Lenton has endured an anxious week, after his wife felt earlier in the week she might have been going into labour.
Thunder star Usman Khawaja said Lenton would be offering no excuses, but revealed the keeper had been burning the candle at both ends.
“He said to me (yesterday), I haven’t had a sleep for 72 hours … poor fella,” said Khawaja.
“That’s life. He thought she might have been going into labour, thankfully it’s all good, hopefully she goes when she needs to … but it’s hard to separate cricket and life.
“You can’t just not go into work, it’s not that sort of thing.
“He’s done well to be on the park. It’s unfortunate he dropped that catch, especially with Stoiny, but that’s the way the cookie crumbles sometimes.
“That can happen to anyone. Knowing Jay he definitely wouldn’t blame a lack of sleep, that’s just what happens in the game sometimes.”
Originally published as Big Bash: Banned spinner Chris Green ready to take first major step on road to redemption