The Australian Selectors

[aussie]

Nah I give up tbh.

. Yep

 

[howardj]

We need selectors with a bit of vision, not selectors who just pick players for the next game.

Picking players for the next game gets you stop gap hacks like North.

Back in 1992-95 the selectors had vision - Warne, Martyn, McGrath, Hayden, Ponting, Slater etc.

They didn't just pick for today, but for next week.

Hopefully Greg Chappell can bring some of this back.

 

[howardj]

The bottom line is that Australia is putting their eggs in the "old school" batting basket.

M. Hussey 35 y.o. and looking scratchy
Haddin 33 y.o. and will walk straight back into the side
Ponting will turn 36 y.o. during the Ashes
Katich 35 y.o. and form has been good

"Pup" Clarke turning 30 y.o. shortly and form has been good recent India series aside
North 31 y.o. and only makes runs on the eve of being dropped
Watson turning 30 y.o. shortly and form has been good

Where's the succession planning? Hayden, Gilly, Martyn were mid-late 30s when they retired. Same for McGrath & Warnie. All greats or very good performers.

I understand that a golden era for Australia is over, but the way to get work back up the world rankings (IMHO) is to put some 22-26 year olds into the Test XI so they have 30+ Tests experience when they peak at 27-30 (bowlers), 28-32 (batters). Rebuilding will take some time - why not start asap?

While the sub-continent theory of blooding teenagers doesn't always pay off, guys with 4-5 years FC experience should be ready instead of making blokes wait until they're 30 y.o. They seldom have THAT much improvement in them at that age.

Agree with you totally Tom.

The current panel has no vision whatsoever.

Warne and McGrath would have debuted five years later under this mob.

 

[NUFAN]

Cricket Australia to axe selector this week | Herald Sun

ONE of Australia's cricket selectors will be sacked this week and denied the chance to choose the team for the first Ashes Test starting on November 25.

Selection boss Andrew Hilditch and new full-time selector Greg Chappell are safe, but either David Boon, Jamie Cox or Merv Hughes will get his marching orders after a Cricket Australia board meeting on Friday.

Hilditch, contracted until the end of the World Cup early next year, will advise the board, but it is free to choose who it wants to go.

Boon and Cox are under the most pressure for their jobs because of a perceived conflict with their respective roles in the South Australian and Tasmanian cricket associations.

Hughes, meanwhile, has been criticised for ******ing overseas tour groups while also working as a selector.

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Please let it be Cox..

 

[Top_Cat]

Would be surprised if it isn't Cox who goes.

 

[aussie]

All of them should go preferably except Chappell. But if just one for now, id say Hughes. Listening to him in interviews during his time as selector especialy when he defended Cam White's bowling selection in India 08/09, he doesnt't know what he is doing.

 

[howardj]

Hughes, and I am being serious, surely is drunk when he is with his touring groups at the ground.

Anyway, four selectors to pick a team of 11 is insane - too much thinking goes on.

 

[Top_Cat]

Yeah, wow, I didn't realise there were 4 of them now. That's crazy, groupthink a real possibility. Especially the case when you have 4 blokes from extremely divergent backgrounds/levels of achievement in the game.

 

[Spark]

I think we've all assumed groupthink has long since set in.

 

[NUFAN]

Dear Australian Selectors,

Xavier Doherty is the best ODI spinner in the country and should be in our national team in front of Nathan Hauritz. Also Dave Warner needs to make some runs in the domestic OD comp (if he can make the NSW team that is) before going away on tours with the Australian team and saying he wants to be the next Gilchrist.

That is all, for now...

Thank you Mr Hilditch

 

[Tom 1972]

4 is not an excessive amount given what is at stake and the fact that they should be spending loads of time watching FC matches, 1-dayers etc.

They should make them full-time (if they're not already), this bs with Merv going on the turps with cricket trips is completely unprofessional.

That being said, a cricket tour with Merv, Boof Lehman, Boonie, Damien Fleming, Kerry O'Keefe et al would be cracking fun.

 

[Top_Cat]

4 is not an excessive amount given what is at stake and the fact that they should be spending loads of time watching FC matches, 1-dayers etc.

Agreed, they need 5.

I'm available.

 

[Dan]

Matthew Inness, now that's a name I haven't heard in years.

The team needs youth, simple as that. North has to go, he's not reliable enough, and the bowling needs a shake-up. Taking 20 wickets is key going into the Ashes, and Johnson-Bollinger-Hauritz-Hilfy isn't going to do that.

Slide Usman Khawaja or even Shaun Marsh into the middle order and maybe go with a Johnson-Bollinger-Hilfenhaus-O'Keefe attack, it has to be an improvement on Hauritz.

Just want to get your opinions, are Johnson and Bollinger doing enough to hold off guys like Harris, Siddle and Hazelwood?

 

[Top_Cat]

Possibly not had all three of those guys not been coming back from injury.

Seriously, the bowling unit has been pretty good. Doing enough to hold their places but looks like Siddle will be pushing very hard in the next few games.

 

[Noble One]

Matthew Inness, now that's a name I haven't heard in years.

The team needs youth, simple as that. North has to go, he's not reliable enough, and the bowling needs a shake-up. Taking 20 wickets is key going into the Ashes, and Johnson-Bollinger-Hauritz-Hilfy isn't going to do that.

Slide Usman Khawaja or even Shaun Marsh into the middle order and maybe go with a Johnson-Bollinger-Hilfenhaus-O'Keefe attack, it has to be an improvement on Hauritz.

Just want to get your opinions, are Johnson and Bollinger doing enough to hold off guys like Harris, Siddle and Hazelwood?

I don't mind the call for change, but replacing Johnson and Bollinger with the names listed would be a bad move. The common theme in recent Australian defeats has been terrible batting displays. Khawaja is a possible fix to this problem, Shaun Marsh is not.

 

[Matt79]

Announced today that the panel is moving from 5 man to 4, so one of the incumbents will get the chop. Cox or Hughes the ones in the gun.

 

[howardj]

Cox will pay as he was the selector on duty at the Oval (when they elected to go with an all-pace battery).

Still beats me as to why you need four guys on the panel to pick 12 players.

 

[Matt79]

There are six state sides playing at once from whom they draw those 12 though. Given they're not all full time positions, 4 is a reasonable number.

 

[tooextracool]

I don't mind the call for change, but replacing Johnson and Bollinger with the names listed would be a bad move. The common theme in recent Australian defeats has been terrible batting displays.

I agree with you partially. I think you are right in that the batting is far more of a worry than the bowling. I also agree with you that there is no need to replace Johnson and Bollinger at the moment. But I do think it is worrying that your top 3 bowlers were struggling to bowl out a school boy Pakistan lineup in England (Watson and North did that). I think all of the above mentioned Australian bowlers will do fine in the Ashes in Australia but there are worries about Bollinger, Johnson and Siddle particularly when the ball isnt moving off the pitch.

 

[Prince EWS]

I agree with you partially. I think you are right in that the batting is far more of a worry than the bowling. I also agree with you that there is no need to replace Johnson and Bollinger at the moment. But I do think it is worrying that your top 3 bowlers were struggling to bowl out a school boy Pakistan lineup in England (Watson and North did that). I think all of the above mentioned Australian bowlers will do fine in the Ashes in Australia but there are worries about Bollinger, Johnson and Siddle particularly when the ball isnt moving off the pitch.

I actually think there are greater worries about them when the ball is moving. They're all very good at bowling on flat wickets providing they have a bit of carry, but none of them really know how to exploit good swing bowling conditions or a seaming deck particularly well except for Hilfenhaus. There are some great physical attributes about their bowling - pace, bounce, stamina etc - but they aren't what I'd call particularly skillful bowlers. They'll dismiss a team for 320 on a flat Melbourne wicket and it'll be a superb effort but when they get conditions like the faced in England they'll still only dismiss a team for 320 because they won't use the conditions well, and it'll put them on the back foot. I know you were alluding to the fact that they were all seam bowlers rather than swing bowlers, and while that's true, I think it goes beyond even that to a point where, even though they'll get better figures on a seamer than a flat track, compared to their opponents I still think they'll almost like flat track specialists.