By IANS
Melbourne : A day after announcing his retirement, former Australian Test batsman Matthew Elliott said that he was considering an offer to play in the rebel Indian Cricket League (ICL) Twenty20 tournament this year, the media reported here Wednesday.
If Elliot, 36, goes ahead with his decision he will be the third Australian to do so after Michael Bevan and Stuart Law.
According to a report in The Australian, Elliot confirmed that he had received an offer to play in the breakaway ICL. “I’m thinking about it. It’s more about what’s best for me after my cricket career,” the cricketer was quoted as saying by the national daily.
Elliott is studying construction management at the University of South Australia, and said he was discussing the offer with his family before making a decision.
Believed by some to be the greatest unfulfilled talent in the Australian team in recent generations, Elliott broke into the national side in 1996. The Victorian scored 1,178 runs in 21 Tests at an average of 33.48. He made his debut in the home series against the West Indies, averaging 42.6 in two Tests. A second series followed against South Africa, in which Elliott averaged 36.4, but in the 1997 Ashes he scored 556 runs at 55.6, including 199 in the Test at Headingley.
But in his final two series, against South Africa and the West Indies, he averaged 10.2 and 11.5 respectively, and when he was recalled for a Test against Sri Lanka in Darwin in 2004, he managed scores of one and a duck.