Grade cricket drama all for nothing?

Last Saturday’s Sydney grade cricket fiasco involving Michael Clarke appears to have become an exercise in futility.

Cricket Australia today announced that, pending fitness, the national captain would play for a CA XI against India in a two-day match beginning Friday which would rule him out of the second day of the grade fixture.

With Clarke racing to potentially prove his fitness ahead of Australia’s first Test against India on December 4, the national captain was listed to bat at No.7 (see below) on the Wests team sheet that Jeff Cook handed to rival Parramatta skipper Michael Castle before play on the weekend.

According to Castle, Cook then requested that the Parramatta captain elect to bat if he won the toss, in order to delay Clarke’s appearance at the crease until the following Saturday (November 29).

“He told me if I sent his side into bat, they would declare after one ball,” Castle told News Ltd.

“He said he’d been put under pressure from Cricket NSW to bowl first so that Michael Clarke could bat on the second day.

“I have never been in a situation like this before, I was shocked.

“I was always going to send them in on that wicket, I won the toss and did that. Jeff said he’d declare after one run or one ball.

“When they got to 0-12 we thought it was all a bluff, but then when he declared at 0-17 we were very annoyed.”

The Magpies’ declaration immediately came under the radar of Cricket New South Wales, which was concerned for the competition’s integrity.

CNSW Chief Executive Officer Andrew Jones said while he "appreciates the thinking behind this gesture" to declare, an investigation would launched after the match was completed.

"We understand Wests may have taken this action (the declaration) to increase the probability of Australian captain Michael Clarke batting in the second week of the game," said Jones.

"While Cricket NSW and the Sydney Cricket Association are conscious of the broader interests of Australian cricket and hence appreciate the thinking behind this gesture, we are also conscious of the need to maintain the integrity of the Sydney grade competition.

"Consequently we will investigate the full facts and evaluate Wests' actions at the conclusion of the round, with appropriate input from all key stakeholders."

As it happened, the Parramatta’s declaration later came with the score at 2-140, and a strong performance from Wests’ batsmen pushed their total to 1-230 at stumps, paving the way for Clarke to bat next Saturday anyway.

Yet Castle was left unimpressed by the nature of the scenario, and what it meant for the Sydney grade competition.

 “In my opinion it should not exist at any level – they manipulated the situation of the game to accommodate one person,” he added.

“It has opened up a precedent; what happens when a state player wants to have a hit in grade before a big game now?

“It is disrespectful to club cricket.

“All these blokes are giving up their weekends, we were pretty peeved, we actually considered getting to 0-18 and declaring.

“Michael Clarke is a big drawcard, I would love to play against him, I’d love for the Australian captain to play the first Test, but not to the detriment of an entire competition.”