Finch almost grounded by passport slip

There were plenty of obstacles standing between Melbourne Renegades captain Aaron Finch and his sudden elevation to the captaincy of Australia's one-day side in New Zealand earlier this year.

Most of the dominoes that fell his way in a whirlwind fortnight were cricket related, but the one that almost brought the whole affair undone was a potentially embarrassing clerical snag that would unsettle even the most even-tempered of souls - the prospect of being legally unable to leave the country and cross the Tasman.

Having been dropped from Australia's ODI side in early January, Finch's focus turned to domestic matters for Melbourne Renegades and Victoria ahead of what he thought would be his next overseas venture, to India in April for the IPL.

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But when his recall for the short New Zealand tour was confirmed a few weeks after his axing, the opener's heart sank at the thought of a seemingly insignificant administrative decision he'd made just a day earlier.

"There was a funny story about that – I nearly didn't go," Finch told cricket.com.au recently of the New Zealand series.

"When I got dropped (in early January) for the Pakistan series, my passport was running out so I went in to get it renewed. And the guy in there said 'do you want it express?' and I thought 'I don't really need it express, I'm not doing anything or going anywhere until the IPL'.

"And then the next day I got a call saying 'you're going to New Zealand in 5-6 days' time'.

"So there was this panic, waiting for this passport to come back."

Happily for Finch, a potentially awkward conversation with Australia's coaching staff and selectors was avoided when his new documentation arrived in time for the short flight across the ditch.

Before his path from ODI outcast to captain of his country was cleared by the unfortunately-timed injuries to regular skipper Steve Smith and then, on the morning of the first match of the series, Smith's fill-in Matthew Wade.

Finch's anxious wait for a new passport mirrored that of his state teammate Jon Holland six months earlier, who had a similarly panicked battle against governmental red tape before he could take his place on Australia's Test tour of Sri Lanka.

For Holland, the phone call every Australian cricketer dreams of - confirming his Test call-up - was followed by heightened anxiety at the realisation that, at the time, he was legally unable to pass through Australian immigration.

Holland's mid-series addition to Australia's touring party due to an injury to Steve O'Keefe came as he arrived in Brisbane with the Australia A side, some 1700km north of his home - and his passport - in Melbourne.

A passport that was all but useless having recently expired, a fact Holland discovered just days earlier but one he had not felt necessary to immediately resolve as a trip to Queensland rather than Sri Lanka was immediately on his radar.

"It's not something that I'm really checking every day," the spinner later explained of his old passport, which he only discovered had expired when he needed to verify his identity for an online account.

"I went back to Melbourne, I had to renew it."

Which he did in time to make his Test debut in Galle, having no doubt asked for the express option.