The DEC Victorian Bushrangers today announced their 15-man squad who will travel to South Africa to compete in the Airtel Champions League Twenty20 tournament starting on September 10, 2010.

The DEC Victorian Bushrangers today announced their 15-man squad who will travel to South Africa to compete in the Airtel Champions League Twenty20 tournament starting on September 10, 2010.

David Hussey will captain the squad in the absence of regular skipper Cameron White, who will represent his IPL team, Royal Challengers Bangalore. International recruits Dwayne Bravo and Ross Taylor are also both unavailable playing for Mumbai Indians and Bangalore respectively.

The Bushrangers squad only has three changes to the team that took them to the semi-final stage of the inaugural Champion's League in India in 2009.

This time around they add Dirk Nannes - who was last year contracted to play for Delhi Daredevils - and young star's Glen Maxwell and Ryan Carters.

In terms of the Bushrangers' Twenty20 specialists, Nannes is arguably top of the list thus the left-arm quick is a welcome inclusion to the team this year.

Maxwell, who played two Twenty20 matches during the KFC Big Bash, brings accurate off-spin, explosive batting and superb fielding to the team and Carters is the back-up wicket keeper.

White had been nominated by both the Challengers and the DEC Victorian Bushrangers on their preliminary lists; however his IPL contract ties him to Bangalore.

Cricket Victoria's CEO, Tony Dodemaide, said it was disappointing for the Bushrangers not to have White involved in their campaign but were understanding of his contractual obligations.

"We certainly would have loved to have Cameron available to play and captain the Victorian side at Champions League," said Dodemaide.

"Conversely we understand the situation he finds himself in and the decision to demonstrate his integrity as a sporting professional and honour his contract with Bangalore.

"I think with this situation it's necessary to acknowledge the landscape of cricket - particularly Twenty20 - which has evolved fairly quickly. We now have professional cricketers playing in teams all over the world; consequently they may be faced with arduous circumstances such as this.

"In a perfect world we would have had Bravo and Taylor in the squad too, but they are also contractually obliged to represent their IPL sides.

"Cameron is a great player for us but we've been a consistent team over a number of years and have a talent stable of players. You need a whole outfit firing to win at this level and we're confident we've got a squad that will do well."

The DEC Victorian Bushrangers take on South Africa's Warriors in their opening match of the tournament on September 13, 2010 in Port Elizabeth. 

DEC Victorian Bushrangers 15-man squad:

David Hussey (C)
Ryan Carters  
Aaron Finch
Shane Harwood
John Hastings
Brad Hodge
Andrew McDonald
Bryce McGain
Clint McKay
Glenn Maxwell
Dirk Nannes
James Pattinson
Rob Quiney
Peter Siddle
Matthew Wade

11 AUGUST, 2010