Former Australian all-rounder Simon O’Donnell doesn’t believe the modern day cricketers in Australia value the honour of representing their country as much as they should.
With T20 cricket prevalent right across the world, players can now ply their trade in a variety of competitions with the financial windfall a huge lure for cricketers wanting to set themselves up for life.
“What has changed in cricket massively is when you played cricket 10, 20 and 30 years ago, once you fell out of the Australian side, there was nothing there to catch you,” O’Donnell told SEN.
“You fell back to grade cricket and Shield cricket where there was no money.
“Now there’s all these different cradles that will catch guys coming off the international scene, whether it be IPL, West Indies league, Pakistan league, all these different opportunities to make a living.”
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Because of this, O’Donnell thinks the money in the game has become a priority for cricketers in Australia over striving to play at the highest level.
“I don’t think the care-factor is there for Australia anymore, I hate saying that, I feel my heartrate rate going up now,” O’Donnell added.
“I don’t think people care enough now about playing for Australia because money has become such a necessary evil within the game, everyone is earning such a living out of the game, I think many are visiting that first.
“I think part of the honour of playing for Australia is now dead and that somehow has to be reinvented.”