Chris Silverwood's head coach appointment a breath of fresh air for Alex Hales

Sport can be really brutal at times. In times like the ones we are living in, with so much attention and scrutiny around sports personalities courtesy the onslaught of social media, you just cannot get away with anything. In the days leading into the World Cup, where on one hand, English cricket was busy in hyping up what eventually turned out to be a great summer of cricket, on the other, they were dealing with a mess: An Alex Hales-sized mess.

Hales, a swashbuckling opening batsman from Nottinghamshire and England, had failed the drug test; in his case, it was happening for the second time. Initially, the news broke that the right-hander has been suspended for 21 days but when news of him having failed his second drug test started doing the rounds, the English and Wales Cricket Board went on a frenzy and axed him from the WC 2019 in a bid to what Ashley Gills, the director of English Cricket, was quoted by The Guardian, “create the right environment.”

Hales, on an expected note, was left devastated by the decision of the ECB and the right-hander even went on to accuse the board of breaking a promise of sticking by him. The 366 Group- an agency that represents Alex Hales- went on to claim that Giles had reneged on assurances that the 30-year-old would be free to play the World Cup provided he completed his punishment and undergo the stipulated rehabilitation program. That clearly didn’t happen! James Vince was drafted in the side in place of the Hales and the former featured in games when Jason Roy was injured.

Chris Silverwood has his say on Alex Hales’ return

However, a lot of water has flown under the bridge since then. England now has a new coach in Chris Silverwood and the former Essex stalwart seems to have cleared the path for Hales possible return to the English set-up. In a candid Q/A with Sky Sports, Silverwood opened up about a lot of things including the possible return of Alex Hales. Silverwood alluded that he was not a big fan of “Never-say-Never” and that no one should write anyone off.

“I’m a big fan for never saying never. I think that Alex has probably still got a little bit of room to makeup but time is a great healer and never write anybody off,” Silverwood said on Alex Hales as quoted saying by Sky Sports.

Hales has since then been plying his trade in T20 tournaments around the world. The right-hander finished as the leading run-scorer for his T20 Blast side Nottinghamshire where he racked up 418 runs at a strike-rate of 140.26. The right-hander was recently a part of the Caribbean Premier League 2019 winning Barbados Tridents unit.

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