Ferguson out for 6-12 months

[age_master]

Not a big loss for Australia, SA will miss him. With this injury, he will struggle to make it back into the Australian team when he is fit again. Hopefully he is right by the end of this summer, so he can have an off season training.

From PC.

I think it is quite a loss for Australia, he has been doing well and hes been very solid so far. I dont see how he will struggle to make it back into the team when he is fit, with a busted ACL he will be back in the nets in 4-5 months and fielding in 6 months fairly easily. NRL players have been back playing league in under 4 months with enough physio.

 

[four_or_six]

I think it's also important to note that taking wickets in ODIs is an important way of controlling the run rate.

 

[Richard]

Disagree.

I think the greats are always promoted probably before their time. I give you Ponting, Tendulkar, Lara, McGrath, Warne etc. Most get dropped, but benefit from the exposure and come back better players.

The early exposure accelerates their development, not stifles it.

I don't think it neccessarily does. Not all greats are neccessarily elevated before their time.

The main reason they so often are is because most decent judges can recognise potential, and many selectors are over-keen to promote players with obvious potential. Probably in part because of their own pig-headedness in trying to be the one who found the next wonderkid, and probably in part for the same reason they sometimes promote no-hopers with no case whatsoever to be promoted at all.

But there are examples of good sets of selectors who picked players who always clearly had massive potential at just the right time and thus they flourished right from the start. Take, for example, Sunil Gavaskar, Brian Lara, Shaun Pollock, Adam Gilchrist (though obviously the situation's a bit different for wicketkeepers as there's only one place available at any one time), Clive Lloyd. And so on. It does not have to be the way that greats are prematurely promoted.

 

[Richard]

I think it's also important to note that taking wickets in ODIs is an important way of controlling the scoring of runs.

Fix'd.

 

[four_or_six]

Fix'd.

 

[Uppercut]

I think it's also important to note that taking wickets in ODIs is an important way of controlling the run rate.

Rumour has it that if you take ten, the run scoring stops altogether.

 

[four_or_six]

rumour has it that if you take ten, the run scoring stops altogether.

Really?

 

[Uppercut]

That's the word on the street.

 

[brockley]

I saw the vision of him doing it,simply awful,could see his knee caving in awful

 

[Richard]

Rumour has it that if you take ten, the run scoring stops altogether.

Ind33d. And if you can take 10 wickets for fewer runs than you can restrict a side to in 50 overs, it's helpful.

 

[Top_Cat]

But there are examples of good sets of selectors who picked players who always clearly had massive potential at just the right time and thus they flourished right from the start. Take, for example, Sunil Gavaskar, Brian Lara, Shaun Pollock, Adam Gilchrist (though obviously the situation's a bit different for wicketkeepers as there's only one place available at any one time), Clive Lloyd. And so on. It does not have to be the way that greats are prematurely promoted.

Dunno about Gavaskar because I wasn't around at the time but Lara was most certainly elevated early. Before he belted that 277 in Sydney, was on the fringes of regular ODI and Test selection for almost three years prior, despite being considered a fairly flashy player with apparent potential but not able to hit the ball off the square. Definitely a pick on potential and what people hoped he'd be rather than being the complete package early.

Have a look at some highlights of his 277, even. Just about every 4 was along the carpet, much like most of his play in most innings at the time. Gave no hint of the power hitter who was to come. No way was he the complete package even after that knock, he still had plenty of development in him.

And Gilchrist was only delayed by Healy. Had there been no Healy, it's quite probable he'd have been picked for Aus when he first went to WA in the early/mid 90's. That was the only thing which stalled his progress because he fairly barnstormed his way through under-age/rep cricket. He was raw but was destined to be picked for Aus. Healy just got in the way.

 

[pup11]

The fact that several players were injured (and I'll say it again - I'm absolutely sure Ferguson was given a position initially as a fill-in for a game or two when one of the big three, Ponting, Hussey and Clarke - not sure which - was rested) is precisely what I'm on about. But for the proliferation of injuries, and the odd requirement to rest, it's very possible Ferguson would still never have played a ODI yet. And if he hadn't, no-one could say it was an injustice.

Ferguson has been a highly rated player ever since he started off in FC cricket at a very young age, and if he had mustered slightly better stats over the seasons, then he would have probably broken into the national side a long while back.
Last season he started to turn his good looking 20's into substantial scores, which probably gave the selectors enough reason to pick him, and it shouldn't really have come as a surprise to anyone, as the Aussie selectors are to known to pick talented young players despite them not having great stats to back their selection, likes of Clarke, Johnson, Siddle are few examples of this.

 

[Richard]

Lara was most certainly elevated early. Before he belted that 277 in Sydney, was on the fringes of regular ODI and Test selection for almost three years prior, despite being considered a fairly flashy player with apparent potential but not able to hit the ball off the square. Definitely a pick on potential and what people hoped he'd be rather than being the complete package early.

Have a look at some highlights of his 277, even. Just about every 4 was along the carpet, much like most of his play in most innings at the time. Gave no hint of the power hitter who was to come. No way was he the complete package even after that knock, he still had plenty of development in him.

Lara became a part of West Indies' Test team (couldn't give a damn about ODIs, he played them without all that much success in 1991/92 but ODIs especially in those days were haphazard and no-one cared that much about them) the Test after Viv Richards' last. He came straight into the team and excelled from the off - the 277 was just 4 Tests into this. I know full well he batted more than a little differently during it to how he did in many of his other most famous knocks, but that in a way is precisely the point - the 277 is IMO his best knock, and however he achieved it it affirmed beyond all question that here was a player of rare talent ready there and then to spar with the best.

Lara has always maintained that the spell as a squad player (he even played a single Test in Pakistan as a replacement in 1990/91) was hugely beneficial to him and that sort of apprenticeship, where a player is around the elders of the team but isn't actually sent onto the park, is exactly what I'm talking about when I say that it's possible to gain from elders' experience without being on the same teamsheet. Lara did that, and if others of his class had been handled better, so could they have. Tendulkar for example did not need to be playing Tests as a 16-year-old; he could have been a squad player for that year, coming into the team in England in 1990. Then he like Lara would very probably have excelled from the off.

And Gilchrist was only delayed by Healy. Had there been no Healy, it's quite probable he'd have been picked for Aus when he first went to WA in the early/mid 90's. That was the only thing which stalled his progress because he fairly barnstormed his way through under-age/rep cricket. He was raw but was destined to be picked for Aus. Healy just got in the way.

I know that - that's why I mentioned what I did in brackets after Gilchrist.

 

[pasag]

He's back

 

[Jono]

One of my fav Aust players. Hope he does well and gets back into the intl team.

 

[PhoenixFire]

Still obviously a good thing that he got injured though.

 

[Julian87]

Huh?

 

[_Ed_]

Quality player. Would be great to see him back.

 

[flibbertyjibber]

Good luck to him,hope he is still the same player he was and is not restricted by the knee.

 

[vic_orthdox]

Would imagine that it would be more of an effect on his fielding and movement, rather than his actual batting; over the long term anyway.