Justin Langer isn’t keen on having what would be a weakened Australian side face the Black Caps early next year.
The New Zealand team will play five Twenty20 internationals against Australia in NZ in late February-early March.
But the touring squad will be missing a number of star performers as Australia will also be contesting a three-test series against the Proteas in South Africa – if the republic has recovered enough from the Covid-19 pandemic to host touring sports teams.
That is likely to mean the team to face the Black Caps will be without the likes of star batsman Steve Smith and key pacemen Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazelwood and Pat Cummins.
Langer has voiced his disapproval to Cricket Australia chairman Earl Eddings and chief executive Nick Hockley.
“I don’t ever want to have two Australian teams playing in the same space,” Langer said in a radio interview.
“[But] in this year with what is happening with Covid-19 I understand there is complexity to it.
“We are one country, we’re not two countries, and we are one sport.”
Langer said Australia’s first-class competition, the Sheffield Shield, will suffer badly from the talent drain.
“If we have two Australian cricket teams that means in the current Covid period, let’s say we have to take 18 Australian players to New Zealand and we have to take 18 Australian players to South Africa, that’s 36 players out of the back end of the Sheffield Shield competition and that’s before any injuries that inevitably happen every year.
“So you take all your best players from the back half of the Shield competition, which we have always said is the best domestic competition in the world.
“They are the sort of things that worry me with this, but this is a really strange season we’ve seen it with AFL, we’ve seen it in NRL, I certainly would never like to see it being a permanent fixture.”
