*Official* Sri Lanka in Australia 2010

[Ruckus]

To follow Amartya Sen's economic theory through to cricket. Selectors should be judged on 'capability management' rather than just W/L records. Get the former right then the latter takes care of itself.

I know nothing of economics, but in other words you pick the players with the most potential?

 

[pup11]

"Got big" at all of 130 ks

Ponting has made a great career out of depositing that rubbish 10 rows back

Problem is that he's mid-30s, his feet and eyes are not what they were AND he's not followed by batsmen who would deposit the same stuff 20 rows back on the way to a hundred on the odd occasion he failed

IMO, he has to show the same discipline Sachin displayed at Sydney a few years ago and put some strokes into the locker permanently for the sake of scoring big runs for his side

Times have changed for him and his team

I love Rick, but you can't deny that the man has an ego as big an elephant's backside.
All these years that has been a strength of his, but at 35 when his reflexes, are not the same, his strengths are gonna look like his weaknesses at times.
Still knowing the kind of fiesty individual Ponting is, one really shouldn't expect him to put any of his shots away.

 

[vcs]

The missed run-out

Possibly the most hilarious bit of ****house fielding I've ever seen - and that's saying something.

Haha Watto was plumb there.

 

[pup11]

The batting has been the primary reason for Australia's recent failings though. You can't just wash away the last 18 months down to inexperience IMO.

Mate, if you have followed Oz cricket over the last decade or two, you would see our batting hasn't always been that consistent, but during all those times, but our bowlers had, pretty much always bailed us out of trouble.
In the last 2-3 years, if anything our batting at the test level has been pretty consistent, barring a few failures.
Its really the lack of experience & quality in our bowling ranks that's hurting Oz in the recent times, which is also something that puts that, added pressure on the batting unit.

 

[Spark]

It's not been this bad usually though. We can get through a single test without having a collapse somewhere it seems.

 

[howardj]

It's not been this bad usually though. We can get through a single test without having a collapse somewhere it seems.

Bingo.

I urge people to go back and have a look at the Test scorecards and the FOW in the past two years. Every Test we have lost there has been not just the low scores, but huge collapses.

 

[howardj]

Sad to see our predicament right now, but its hardly surprising, we seem to be playing games against other teams, but all we seem to think and talk about is the Poms and the Ashes!!It also doesn't help that we have people like Clarke & Johnson, who can play like ****, till they turn old and grey, without even having their place questioned....

Agree mate.

The Poms are ranked # 4, and yet we seem obsessed by them as though they are the jewel in the crown of international cricket, as though knocking them off is akin to taking down the Windies in the 1980s. I am sick of the Ashes obsession and the absurd claim that you can't blood a debutant in the Ashes because the occassion is too big and important.

 

[pup11]

It's not been this bad usually though. We can get through a single test without having a collapse somewhere it seems.

Mate, it doesn't help that we're chasing the leather for almost 5-6 sessions, in almost every test we play these days!!

 

[Redbacks]

I know nothing of economics, but in other words you pick the players with the most potential?

What do you mean by potential? Ponting has the potential to score more runs at number 3 than any other player in our current team, or Khawaja has the potential to be our next number 3? They are slightly different issues for a selector to tackle.

 

[Jono]

Mate, if you have followed Oz cricket over the last decade or two, you would see our batting hasn't always been that consistent, but during all those times, but our bowlers had, pretty much always bailed us out of trouble.
In the last 2-3 years, if anything our batting at the test level has been pretty consistent, barring a few failures.
Its really the lack of experience & quality in our bowling ranks that's hurting Oz in the recent times, which is also something that puts that, added pressure on the batting unit.

Nah Australia have batted first and collapsed quite a bit, which has nothing to do with bowling pressure.

 

[Ruckus]

What do you mean by potential? Ponting has the potential to score more runs at number 3 than any other player in our current team, or Khawaja has the potential to be our next number 3? They are slightly different issues for a selector to tackle.

I mean potential, as in could play at a high level for a sustained period of time. I.e. Khawaja etc. look like they have potential. Marcus North doesn't.

But I didn't really understand what you were saying in the first place, so maybe you should rephrase, 'capability management' etc. ?

 

[pup11]

Nah Australia have batted first and collapsed quite a bit, which has nothing to do with bowling pressure.

Apart from against Pakistan and once against England, I can't recall them collapsing too often when batting first.

 

[Johnners]

Sad to see our predicament right now, but its hardly surprising, we seem to be playing games against other teams, but all we seem to think and talk about is the Poms and the Ashes!!
It also doesn't help that we have people like Clarke & Johnson, who can play like ****, till they turn old and grey, without even having their place questioned....

Assuming this is in reference to their form in T20s & ODI's respectively?

 

[Spark]

Questioning Clarke's place now in ODIs is a bit bizarre.

 

[Migara]

Glad you quoted an instance where I said "got late"

Now starts throwing **** all over the place after you have lost the argument.

 

[pup11]

Assuming this is in reference to their form in T20s & ODI's respectively?

No mate, I'm talking about their form over the last 18 months through all formats.

Just because Clarke has scores of 99 n.o and 111n.o, in his last four innings, doesn't mask the fact that his SR in ODI cricket over the last 2 years is somewhere around in the 60's, which is simply horrible.
As for Johnson, his bowling is getting worse with every passing day, he never had any variations, but atleast he was accurate, but these days he is all over the shop.

 

[Avada Kedavra]

Don't think Johnson has ever been that accurate tbh.Except a few innings here and there,he has always been quite erratic.Seems to get a high percentage of his wkts with rubbish balls.

 

[Spark]

No mate, I'm talking about their form over the last 18 months through all formats.

Just because Clarke has scores of 99 n.o and 111n.o, in his last four innings, doesn't mask the fact that his SR in ODI cricket over the last 2 years is somewhere around in the 60's, which is simply horrible.
As for Johnson, his bowling is getting worse with every passing day, he never had any variations, but atleast he was accurate, but these days he is all over the shop.

The problems with Clarke's SR over 2008-9 are extremely well documented to the point where even Cricinfo ran a story on it. However check his stats for this year, they're much better, he's striking at close to 80. In addition if there is one positive out of the two innings he's played in this series it's that they've been quick.

And Johnson and ODI cricket just don't match. Never have and probably never will.

 

[Ikki]

Yet there are calls for Usman Khawaja, Ferguson, White etc. to be selected...

Making the team more inexperienced seems to be what people want?

But those reasons make sense because people want our talented but underpeforming batsmen out. It's not because they weren't talented in the first place. And the reason those younger guys are named is because they're talented.

When I mention experience, I am referring more to how a group of players learn to overcome difficulties. I dont think we have such a squad still but I do think that we have players of fine talent. We aren't suddenly producing mediocre cricketers IMO. We have talented players but they have to adjust. It happened all over Australia's run at the top but it was much easier then since a new player was fitting in to an already excellent and performing team. That team could carry newbs through the process; this one can't.

 

[vic_orthdox]

The problems with Clarke's SR over 2008-9 are extremely well documented to the point where even Cricinfo ran a story on it. However check his stats for this year, they're much better, he's striking at close to 80. In addition if there is one positive out of the two innings he's played in this series it's that they've been quick.

And Johnson and ODI cricket just don't match. Never have and probably never will.

He was pretty impressive early doors in his ODI career.