The players not being as good as they were tails with my point about not utilising the extant resources properly.
The selection panel still picks its test XI & squads like it's 2006. Currently I don't think it's politic to ignore a player's claims just because they're old, a ****, a lardo, have a tendancy to throttle their captain or prefer wine to beer or whatever.
Yeah look, Brad Hodge is 38 and hasn't played a First Class game since 2009. I don't know why he keeps coming up.
Katich was discarded too quickly and it was a move I criticised quite heavily but his Sheffield Shield form since that time certainly hasn't indicated he'd have been a team-changing player. He too is 38 and retired now.
Which basically brings it back to the fact that whenever someone talks about Australia declining or the lack of batting talent, you bring up Chris Rogers and cry blue murder as if there are six or seven blokes who are clearly Test class that the selectors are ignoring based on his case. Well I've always been a fan of Chris Rogers myself - moreso than the vast majority of the country - but he does have a strange technique and a strange way of going about his cricket in general, so there's absolutely no guarantee whatsoever that he'd be a Test standard option or better than the blokes who are being picked.
You can complain until you're blue in the face and bring up the names of retired players to make your case look stronger but it's not even close to being the obvious misjustice you're making it out to be; he certainly IMO would've struggled greatly in India, like the rest of our top order have. He was unlucky not to play more than the one Test for Australia and I think he's *probably* still one of our best six batsmen, but that opinion is not a commonly held one in this country and it's not just because Rogers is outspoken either; it's because the standard of his batsmanship is not rated as highly here as it is in your head.
Fact is, if Rogers had actually been in the side for the last seven years he'd almost certainly be showing the same signs of decline he's been showing domestically for the last couple of seasons and be thinking about hanging up the boots anyway.
These blokes are yesterday's heroes. Maybe we should've picked them two years ago to eek something out of them; it was actually something I was very much in favour of at the time, but it's over now. It's not just that they're old; two of them aren't playing anymore and one isn't as good as he was anyway. If they'd had long Test careers for Australia they'd be coming to an end now regardless. The point Stephen makes is spot on - we've had a generation of very talented young batsmen come through and just not kick on as hoped. They're not as good as the players we've had previously, or the players in the best couple of Test sides. And that's sport; it happens sometimes.
