“We probably had numerous discussions before and after the T20 World Cup,” Maxwell said on the Final Word podcast. “And it was it was pretty open ended. There wasn’t any pressure from that side [Australia team management], and we decided to sort of leave the door open. There was a couple of series that were coming up; they were going to look to the future, and we saw that in Bangladesh with guys getting their opportunity and performing really well.”
“I suppose, a small hope or discussion that I might have been able to potentially get a send-off game at the MCG. But I can completely understand the direction they’re going with this squad. There’s going to be a lot of change, I suppose, over the next 12 to 24 months with the Olympics coming up [in 2028], and they’ve got to make sure that they get their eyeballs on a few young guys coming through and making sure that they’re getting exposed to international pressure that you probably can’t always get from a BBL fixture.”
England are about to visit for a white-ball series which includes a T20I in Melbourne and Maxwell had been tempted to try and get himself ready for it.
“The option was there, but I was sort of ready to push the button on getting an injection on my knee to make sure I was ready for the BBL. So there was sort of a positive either way. And as soon as that door was shut, I was able to start to put some time back into my body. Eight weeks of solid rehab again to make sure I’m strong and ready for for the BBL coming up. So probably just the small fairy tale that you sort of see these your heroes and idols sort of go through. You start to sort of let your mind drift towards that, and probably no other format I probably would have asked for it, except for this one, where I feel like it’s been it’s almost felt like home over the last 15 years.”
