Chadd Sayers should be bowling for a Australian Test spot. Instead, he's sending down trundlers off a few paces at an indoor net.
Sayers' bid to win his first Test cap has been cruelled by Australian cricket's pay dispute, which will drag into yet another week.
Cricket Australia and the Australian Cricketers' Association are expected to resume talks on Monday to try and end the impasse over the sport's future funding model.
Sayers was picked in the Australia A squad to tour South Africa this month but the tour was cancelled due to the pay stoush.
With one fast bowler spot on the looming Test tour of Bangladesh vacant because of Mitchell Starc's withdrawal, Sayers was a prime selection candidate.
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But instead of pushing his case in sunny South Africa, Sayers is bowling off a few steps in an indoor net, as he puts it, "in the freezing cold Adelaide mornings".
"Obviously it would be nice to be over in South Africa but the players have stood together," Sayers told AAP.
"It just wasn't going to be fair that we go to South Africa and get paid to play cricket when the blokes back here are training their arses off and not getting paid, blokes who don't have a contract.
"It's obviously disappointing for a lot of the players pushing for higher honours. It was just another chance to put another couple of good performances on the board.
"Obviously I want to play for Australia so that was a good chance to get a couple of wickets and put my name forward again.
"But the picture is we're trying to look after every playing group around the country and for the future as well, and the past players.
"It's a bigger picture we're looking at, not just the present."
The South Australian swing bowler said training indoors was far from ideal preparation for the looming summer.
"It's not as good as being outside, let's be honest," he said.
"It is pretty tough on your body, bowling on the concrete most days of the week so you don't steam in.
"I only bowl off a few steps and just get through my action and work on a few little things."
