Nannes happy to cash in on T20 riches up for grabs

Sydney, May 8 (ANI): Leading wicket taker in the Twenty20 World Cup, Dirk Nannes, has said that Australian cricketers who no longer are in contention for Test and Sheffield Shield selection should cash in on the T20 riches on offer.He, however added that young players should persist with goals to wear the baggy green.

"It would be disturbing if the younger blokes did it, (but) I see it certainly as a good option for people getting close to the end of their career who no longer see themselves as a fixture in the longer forms," The Sydney Morning Herald quoted Nannes, as saying.

Nannes, a Twenty20 specialist who retired from first-class cricket last season, said: "It would be a worry if it happened at a younger age. Everyone says David Warner is a Twenty20 specialist. It would be wrong for someone like that to just be a Twenty20 cricketer.

"He's got so much of his game to develop. There's no reason he can't play Test cricket and be a good player over a long period of time. People like that would be making the wrong decision. What happens if the IPL falls over? Who knows?"

"For someone who is on the outer of Test cricket, why not make the right business move and play the shorter form? You have to get out of cricket what you can, if you strip the emotion away," he said.

The most unlikely of Australian cricketers, Nannes, after only nine internationals, T20s has become a key member of the team's World Twenty20 campaign.

"I'd always play a couple of games (of cricket) before and after I went skiing. Skiing was December until the end of February," said Nannes, who always wanted to be a skiier or a musician, a sax player.

"I don't know how it happened. It was funny. It wasn't like everyone else who has come through the representative system. I had never played a representative game until I played for Victoria and I never really actually wanted to be a cricketer. I had just played cricket in the backyard with my brother," he added.

Nannes said he has had no more than 10 coaching lessons on his bowling action through his career, and yet has become one of the most potent short-form bowlers in the world. (ANI)