McNamara believes Bailey could be doing a dead-end job if not for Channel Nine

Channel Nine executive producer of cricket Brad McNamara believes Australia Twenty20 captain George Bailey could be “working in a coal mine or flipping burgers at McDonald’s” if not for all the money pumped into the sport by the network.

Bailey has been defending his side after they were branded “the B-team” by Channel Nine and fans during the first two ODIs against Sri Lanka since captain Michael Clarke, wicketkeeper Matthew Wade and opening batsman David Warner were all rested.

However, Bailey admitted that he understood such a term coming from the network since they are currently under a lot of pressure to regain the rights to cover the sport.

Channel Nine’s head of sport Steve Crawley was the first to use the “B-team” term, but McNamara stated that Crawley’s had never used the term and added that ratings for the first two ODIs had actually been outstanding.

“Nowhere has Channel Nine ever talked the one-day game down, nowhere have we ever said this is a ‘B team’,” McNamara said on Sky Sports Radio. “It’s rubbish and George should stick to playing cricket and leave rights to the people who know what they’re talking about. I reckon he’s got his hands full as it is. He needs to concentrate on staying in the side.

“And he needs to understand where his money’s coming from. Without the TV rights deal, George is probably working in a coal mine or flipping burgers at McDonald’s. All this talk about the death of one-day cricket, it’s not coming from us. Given we were lacking star quality, we were very happy [with the ratings].”