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Wellington. Australian vice captain Michael Clarke quit his country’s cricket tour of New Zealand for undisclosed personal reasons and returned to his Sydney home.

Clarke, 28, left the team hotel on Monday, on the eve of its third one-day international against New Zealand at Hamilton, and it was not known if or when he would rejoin the tour, Cricket Australia general manager of cricket Michael Brown said on Tuesday.

“Michael is attending to personal, non-cricket matters and we ask on his behalf that his privacy be respected,” Brown said.

Clarke’s fiancee, Australian model Lara Bingle, recently announced she would sue former boyfriend and Australian Rules football player Brendan Fevola over nude photographs allegedly taken during their relationship that were later distributed without her permission.

An Australian magazine last week published a photo of Bingle in the shower, which was reportedly taken in 2006 while she and the married Fevola were involved in a relationship.

Cricket Australia named Tasmania’s George Bailey as Clarke’s replacement for the rest of the five-match, limited-overs series.

Australian selectors were due to name a squad on Tuesday for two test matches against New Zealand but delayed the announcement while Clarke’s availability remained uncertain.

“Due to Michael Clarke returning to Australia for personal reasons, the national selection panel has today added George Bailey to the one day squad,” chairman of selectors Andrew Hilditch said.

“George is having an outstanding season in all forms of the game and richly deserves this opportunity to join the Australian squad,” he added. “He is a talented and exciting batsman and we are confident if the opportunity arises he will perform well at international level for Australia.”

Meanwhile, Bangladesh has omitted veteran batsman and former captain Mohammad Ashraful, who is experiencing a slump in form, from the 14-man squad named for the two-test series against England starting in Chittagong on Friday.

Ashraful has failed to register a half-century in his last 13 international innings and only posted scores of one and 30 for the Bangladesh A team in this week’s warm-up game against England.

Left-arm spinner Enamul Haque Jr. returns to a side that also includes batsman Roqibul Hassan, who was overlooked in the one-day series but forced his way back into the national squad with an unbeaten century and a fifty in the same warm-up game.

England won the one-day series 3-0.

  Cricket

AP, Reuters