Usman Khawaja upset by Queensland Cricket claims, in doubt for Sheffield Shield final; Australian Test cricket; Patrick Cummins; Mark Taylor; Ian Healy; SEN; Australian Formula 1 Grand Prix; F1

Taylor – who played in two winning Shield teams for NSW, including one as captain – was on the CA board when former chair Wally Edwards called for the final to be scrapped in 2015 in one of his final remarks before stepping down.

The Shield final, played over five days at the home venue of the top-ranked team, was introduced for the 1982-83 season.

“It’s something the players used to fight for,” Taylor said. “I can remember the discussions from years gone by on, ‘Do we need the Shield final?’ Players were forthright on wanting to keep it because of the importance of it, because it was considered the next level below a Test match, but you wouldn’t say that’s the case today.”

World cricket has granted a window for the IPL but the league’s recent expansion by a further two weeks into March makes a clash with the Shield final almost unavoidable. If NSW had made the final, Test quicks Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood would all have been unavailable.

The political economy of world cricket means the Shield final will never win out against the IPL.

Loading

“If you don’t offer NOCs you’re going to get India off side and probably some of the players off side,” Taylor said. “It’s not an easy maze to work through.”

Khawaja, 38, remained silent on Thursday following Dawes’ extraordinary criticism of the Test opener. But QC deputy chair Ian Healy took another stab at the issues he perceived to be at play in an era when players have gained far more authority to opt out of matches.

“What we shouldn’t forget is when Usman makes a team and in a game he is 100 per cent in,” Healy said on his SEN radio show. “When he gets into the environment, he is fine. It’s just this pick-and-choose mentality that has been evident in his later years that Queensland haven’t been happy with.”

Both Khawaja and Head have given up their respective state captaincy roles in the past year in order to have more freedom to rest from state commitments: Khawaja to manage his body in the face of his advancing cricketing years, and Head to play more franchise cricket among multi-format duties for Australia.

News, results and expert analysis from the weekend of sport sent every Monday. Sign up for our Sport newsletter.