BBL 11: Cricket Australia under fire for not allowing Steve Smith to play for Covid-hit Sydney Sixers

Big Bash League: Cricket Australia did not allow Steve Smith to play for Sydney Sixers in their challenger match against Adelaide Strikers despite the team being hampered by positive Covid-19 cases.

Cricket Australia has drawn criticism for not allowing Steve Smith to play for Sydney Sixers in their Big Bash League play-offs match against Adelaide Strikers at the Sydney Cricket Ground on Wednesday. Sixers were depleted by positive Covid-19 cases but the CA did not allow Smith from playing for the side.

Sydney Sixers had to include their assistant coach Jay Lenton in the playing XI after it emerged that wicketkeeper-batter Josh Philippe tested positive for Covid-19 ahead of their play-offs game.

The challenger final in Sydney went ahead without Smith as CA acknowledged it needed to tweak its regulations about player eligibility during the pandemic.

With last week's cancellation of a limited-overs series between Australia and New Zealand, Smith had made himself available to play for the Sixers.

The Australia batter had previously chosen before the season not to sign a deal with the Sixers, thereby freeing up a spot on the team's roster in the domestic Twenty20 competition.

Smith was deemed ineligible by CA because replacements can only come from a Local Replacement Player pool, created due to COVID-19 concerns in early January.

"In the past two days, a need has been identified to expand the central Local Replacement Player pool in response to heightened COVID risks in and around the competition," Cricket Australia said, as quoted by Reuters.