Dumped Maxwell set for club cricket return

Dumped allrounder Glenn Maxwell will return to Melbourne club cricket this weekend as he aims to win back his spot in Victoria's Sheffield Shield side.

Maxwell was a shock omission from the Bushrangers' XI to take on Tasmania this week, relegated to 12th man duties for the clash at the MCG.

The right-hander averages 41 with the bat in first-class cricket and averaged 56 in the Shield last year, but was unable to win a place in a powerful batting line-up that includes Aaron Finch (first-class average of 34.58), Matthew Wade (39.50), Cameron White (40.14) and Peter Handscomb (38.36).

The 28-year-old will instead turn out for his Victorian Premier Cricket side Fitzroy-Doncaster this Saturday for the first day of their two-day clash against St Kilda.

The match will be played at Schramms Reserve in Doncaster, some 20 kilometres east of Melbourne, and Maxwell will no doubt be sizing up the short square boundaries at the suburban venue.

"We're just really disappointed for him. To think he's not in the best 11 players for Victoria is a bit surprising," Fitzroy-Doncaster captain Peter Dickson told News Ltd.

"We always love having him play, but we'd rather have him play because there's no game on not because he hasn't been picked (for Victoria).

"We've been texting this morning and he's been really positive about it. I don't think he's got a chip on his shoulder or he's angry about it, he's disappointed and wants to play well."

Maxwell's axing from the Shield side comes after he was dropped from Australia's one-day international team earlier this year, while he was also overlooked for their Test tour of Sri Lanka.

Following his axing from the ODI side, Maxwell blasted two record scores of 145no and 66 in the two-match T20 series against the Sri Lankans and repeated his desire to play all three forms of the game for Australia.

It was also revealed last month that Maxwell had sought an off-season move away from the Vics and to NSW, but the switch was denied as it didn't comply with the Australian Cricketers' Association Memorandum Of Understanding.

Cricket Australia's Executive General Manager, Team Performance, Pat Howard said he has spoken to Victoria about their decision to drop Maxwell, who is a Cricket Australia contracted player, and backed him to respond to the axing.

"If it was a permanent issue then we'd obviously start looking to try and get him playing at the next level," Howard told SEN Breakfast of Maxwell, who averaged 30 with the bat and 24.50 with the ball in the recent Matador BBQs One-Day Cup.

"They made a decision, they justified why it was happening ... it's straight performance. They wanted more out of him in the Matador, he's a world-class player and they expected a world-class performance."