Eoin Morgan signs up for Big Bash as part of global money-spinning tour despite snubbing England’s Bangladesh trip
One Day skipper will embark on winter earner as game's bigwigs insist he is wrong not to join Three Lions abroad
EOIN MORGAN has signed to play in this winter’s Big Bash as he embarks on a money-spinning global Twenty20 tour.
It means Morgan – who quit England’s trip to Bangladesh on safety grounds – will play in the world’s two richest Twenty20 tournaments.
The Middlesex batsman joins Sydney Thunder in the Big Bash which is staged in December and January.
He is scheduled to play the first half of the tournament before reclaiming the England captaincy for the 50-over and Twenty20 matches in India in January.
Morgan, 30, is also retained by Sunrisers Hyderabad on a £165,000 contract to play in next year’s Indian Premier League starting in April.
My View: Ex-England rugby skipper Will Carling
NO WAY can Eoin Morgan captain England again if he doesn’t go to Bangladesh.
Security chiefs say it’s safe to go, so you go. If I was captaining the England rugby side and the same thing happened, I’d be on the plane with my team-mates.
Players who do travel won’t be able to look at you in the same way if you don’t go on a tour that’s been cleared as safe.
It will be Morgan’s SIXTH visit to the IPL since he says he was spooked by his proximity to a bomb during the 2010 event.
Morgan’s continued desire to tour the world raking in big bucks will do little to silence those who believe he is driven by cash rather than the honour of leading his adopted country.
As the furore over Morgan’s decision continued to rage, all five of England’s longest-serving Test skippers think he has got it wrong.
Nasser Hussain and Michael Vaughan have written that Morgan’s standing in the dressing-room will be diminished while Mike Atherton says the Irishman should be boarding the plane on September 29.
Strauss used the word “disappointed” to described Morgan’s decision to stay at home, which is ECB-speak for furious.
Current Test captain Alastair Cook gave an assurance more than two weeks ago that he will tour – even though his wife is due to have their second baby in early October.
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Others to insist they would have gone to Bangladesh include former England batsman James Taylor, who was forced to quit with a heart condition, and ex-skipper Graham Gooch.
Current batting coach Mark Ramprakash says he never had any qualms about going to the troubled country.
Even 19-year-old Haseeb Hameed, poised for a dramatic debut Test tour, insisted: “I have no concerns with going to Bangladesh.
The fact the security guys have been there and are happy for the tour to go ahead means I am happy to go.”