Boyce eyes history as another World Cup heads down under

Cameron Boyce has put his hand up to play for Australia in not one, but two World Cups this year.

The most prolific spin bowler in KFC BBL history knows his chances of adding to his seven international T20 caps are slim, though not completely out of reach.

But Boyce could become the first Australian man to represent his country in both outdoor and indoor cricket when Melbourne hosts the eleventh Indoor Cricket World Cup in October.

Australia's men, remarkably, have won all 10 previous editions of the men's event since 1995, while Australia's women have also won all nine of their indoor World Cups since they were first included in 1998.

It's a proud record that Boyce hopes to uphold, if picked.

The leg-spinner grew up playing indoor cricket in suburban Brisbane with his twin brother Chris, who was part of Australia’s 2009 World Cup win.

Now contracted only at Big Bash level, Boyce returned to the sport last year and helped Queensland take out the national title. He hopes another good performance at this year's championships in June-July could help win him a maiden cap with the Australian indoor team.

Image Id: 4E016923027740A3ACABBB31F6EA7914 Image Caption: The Boyce twins, Cameron (left) and Chris (right) // CA

"It's really exciting. Personally I'd love to go away, have a good nationals and put my hand up for selection," Boyce told cricket.com.au.

"I’d love to have a crack and see what I could offer the team. I feel like I had a really good impact at nationals last year. Playing on home soil makes a massive difference as well.

"To potentially say I could have played outdoor and indoor for my country would be a really cool thing to say. I'm not sure how many guys have done that before. It'd be pretty cool."

Pioneer batter Belinda Clark is the most notable female player to have represented Australia in both indoor and outdoor cricket.

But while male Test players including the likes of Mark and Steve Waugh, Michael Clarke, Brad Haddin, Aaron Finch and Matthew Wade all played indoor cricket at various levels, none also represented Australia.

For good reason too; indoor cricket requires subtly different skills, has its own scoring system that includes losing five runs for every wicket, while there's an increased premium on fielding.

"The everyday punter probably doesn't understand how high of an intensity the fielding is and it's so skilful," said Boyce. "That's probably the best part of the game.

"You bat, you bowl and you field – you go through games where you don't do much with the bat or the ball but you do stuff in the field that literally changes the game.

"If you go into the last two or three overs of a game and you go bang, bang, get a wicket and a good run out, all of a sudden you get minus five or ten runs, it can change so quickly.

"The game literally is pretty much never over."

Boyce also stresses pitch conditions can also vary from arena to arena.

New synthetic turf at the venue for last year's national championships aided the spin of Boyce, who said he brought a more aggressive strategy to the Queensland indoor team that defeated a Victorian outfit featuring Hobart Hurricanes spinner Clive Rose in the final.

With extra runs on offer for hitting the side netting and fours and sixes only able to be scored by hitting the back net, batters tend to go for the more conservative option.

But having gone two years without winning the competition, a relative drought considering they had taken out two thirds of the previous 21 open men's titles, Boyce said he encouraged an "out-of-the-box" approach.

"I probably just brought a different outlook," he explained. "Queensland hadn't won in a few years so I brought a bit of a different perspective and played a little bit more attacking than we had in the past few years.

"There definitely became a period where we needed to change a few things because nothing we were doing was working."

In a miserable season for the reigning BBL champions, Boyce has been a shining light for the Renegades and helped spark a rare win over the Brisbane Heat last week when he clean bowled AB de Villiers.

Boyce finished with 4-15 from four overs and the de Villiers wicket was a telling reminder the 30-year-old remains just as potent as he was when he last played for Australia four years ago.

While he is realistic about a recall, he hasn't given up all hope.

"I'm not the kind of person who comes out and says, 'I'm bowling well, I need to be picked,' or anything like that," said Boyce.

"The games I played for Australia I did a really good job. My record in Big Bash speaks for itself. I bowl the way I do in Australian conditions and obviously the (T20) World Cup is here in Australia.

"If they were to ask me to play I'd be rapt. I don't think it's going to happen with me not playing state cricket anymore, but I certainly wouldn't be knocking them back."