Australia / Andrew Hughes / 24 December 2010 /

Nathan Hauritz has apparently turned his back on his country and more or less signalled the end of his international career. But such self-imposed exile is pretty rare in the cricket world. Andrew Hughes tells us more

You have to have some sympathy with Nathan Hauritz. He's no Shane Warne, but is, by general consensus, Australia's best and certainly their most reliable spinner. Yet after a disappointing tour of India, he was dumped ahead of the Ashes, in favour of Xavier Doherty who had barely played a first class game. Hauritz's reaction was to sell a pile of his Cricket Australia memorabilia in a garage sale and when asked why he was doing it, replied, "I don't play for them any more."

At 29, Hauritz can be considered to be at his peak as a player, so to turn his back on his country at this stage is a drastic move, one that you rarely see in cricket. It could be said that Marcus Trescothick did that, but his withdrawal from international cricket was the sad result of the nervous disorder that made touring overseas such an ordeal for the Somerset player. Perhaps he might be able to tell Hauritz a thing or two about what it means to give up your international career.

Zulqarnain Haider's case is even more unusual than those of Hauritz and Trescothick. Having established himself as Pakistan's first choice wicket-keeper, earlier this year he dramatically fled the hotel his team were staying at in Dubai, flew to England and there announced his retirement from international cricket, citing death threats made against him and his family by criminals involved in match fixing. Even by Pakistan's chaotic standards, it was an extraordinary end to an international career.

The nearest thing that English cricket has had to a Hauritz-style fit of pique would be Graham Thorpe's reaction to being left out of the First Test of the 2005 Ashes in favour of Kevin Pietersen. The gritty left-hander retired from international cricket on the spot. It is true that he was near the end of his career, but could have had another couple of seasons at the top level. He played on for Surrey, but as other former internationals have found, domestic cricket just isn't the same. Thorpe eventually retired from all cricket in August that year.

The fact is that whilst this kind of self-imposed international exile is becoming more common in football, where the rewards for a domestic football career far outweigh what you can earn on the international stage, it is still a rare thing in cricket, where national recognition has traditionally been the best way of increasing both your profile and your earning potential. Cricketers understandably still regard closing the door on their international career as a drastic, possibly career-ending move.

But things are changing. Cricketers like Andrew Symonds, no longer wanted by Australia, can make a good living from playing the other formats of the game, particularly Twenty20. There has been speculation that Chris Gayle might one day turn his back on the West Indies, whilst for Twenty20 specialists like Keiron Pollard, an international career, particularly given the paltry remuneration that the West Indies can offer him, might be considered a tedious distraction.

Hauritz though has yet to attract the interest of any domestic Twenty20 teams. In fact, given his comparatively young age, the dearth of quality spinners in Australia and the inconsistency of selection in that part of the world, he may find himself in the position of reconsidering his international retirement in the not too distant future. For the moment, Steven Smith is the main man and though he didn't contribute much at Perth, he could have more influence at Melbourne, where Australia are [2.52] favourites to take a 2-1 series lead.

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