Ex-Oz pacer Clark blames 20-20 for his back injury

Out-of-favour Australian seamer Stuart Clark has admitted that the shorter form of the game may have caused his latest back injury.
 
Clark revealed for the first time yesterday that he may have played his last Test for Australia, adding that using Twenty20 cricket to prepare for his first-class summer had backfired on him.

"There is a lot of conjecture about too much cricket and, while I can't speak about [other players'] injuries, with me I probably suffered from playing shorter-version cricket and not having the overs under my belt," the Daily Telegraph quoted Clark, as saying.

"There is a fine line between not enough bowling and too much bowling, and I'm going to say I was probably in the 'not enough bowling' [category] during the Champions League stuff, and that probably contributed in some way to me getting injured. I think more studies about bowling workloads for younger guys will be about not doing as much, but also doing enough [because] not doing enough will cause injuries as time goes by," he added.

Clark's comments were backed by former quick Geoff Lawson, who said today's bowlers were being rested too much and four overs "wouldn't raise a sweat".

Australia's leading sports doctor Nathan Gibbs agreed, saying Twenty20 robbed bowlers of vital practice time in the nets.

Gibbs said most bowling injuries were caused by "repetitive overload", but under-use was an issue.

Clark was a late withdrawal from Friday's Sheffield Shield clash at the Gabba because of his back, but is keen to keep playing, even if it is only domestically. He refused to give up his Ashes dream.

"I'm not sure where I stand in terms of playing international cricket again, but I do agree it's looking very unlikely," Clark said.

Clark denied he had fallen out with coach Tim Nielsen and had hopes to return to England for a county stint.