Here is why George Bailey won't feature in IPL 2018

Former Australian T20I captain George Bailey has chosen to put his family before his county deal, confirming that he won’t return to Hampshire in 2018 as he wants to spend time at home. Bailey’s wife Katie is pregnant with their second child and is due to give birth at the end of April. It is a major reason that the former Hampshire captain is willing to miss the upcoming county season.

For the same reason, the 35-year-old also didn’t put his name forward for the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2018 auction. On Monday, Bailey won the domestic player honour award as well. He received the award for the best domestic player of the year at the annual Allan Border Medal presentation at Melbourne’s Crown Casino, for being the leading run-scorer across all three formats – the JLT Sheffield Shield, JLT One-Day Cup and KFC Big Bash League last year.

Bailey featured in the Australian Test team that swept to a 5-0 Ashes whitewash over England in 2013-14, after which he has not played any Test cricket.

Best domestic player award

“I reckon there would have been a time where I would have chosen cricket over family,” he told cricket.com.au. “But now it’s not even a decision, really. I love spending time with my family and I think it’s had a really positive impact on my cricket. I wouldn’t advocate that for 24-year-olds, that’s just where I am and it’s working out really well,” Bailey added.

Career in a glance

In 5 Test matches for Australia, the top order batsman has scored 183 runs, while in ODIs, he has 3044 runs from 90 games. In the shortest format, the right-hand batsman has amassed 473 runs from 30 games. In the IPL, Bailey represented three teams, the Chennai Super Kings, the Kings XI Punjab and the Rising Pune Supergiant. He was also a part of the World XI team that visited Pakistan last year.