**Official** Tour Matches

[pup11]

Hauritz's bowling might seem to be shocking and poor on many counts, but its hardly surprsing, Hauritz is a pretty good OD spinner, but to thrust him into a big series like the Ashes just on the basis of his recent ODI performances was a terrible decision.

Hauritz is a decent spinner, he has the ability to be a serviceable spinner for Australia in the year's to come even in the longer format of the game, but for that he needs to play more FC cricket, work with some spin gurus and develop his bowling a bit more.

Anyways, nice to see Hughes spend sometime out there at the crease, now Ponting, Hussey, North needs to do the same.

 

[andruid]

]If he was very good he wouldn't have had to do that, because he'd have been into his first county's first-team at 19 or 20[/B].

I'm 100% against young players shifting all over everywhere vainly trying to get into a first-team the minute they're out of their teens. Most are nowhere near good enough to do that, and this moving around constantly is only a very recent fad (the likes of Mark Butcher, Alec Stewart, Graham Thorpe etc. spent years on the sidelines at Surrey before nailing down their places) and in no small part due to the vastly increased presence of agents.

A good county player cannot expect to become established until the age of 22-23; only someone who is an international prospect is likely to become established at a younger age.

If some 19 yo walked straight out of u19 cricket into the first XI of any major domestic team without being some kind of prodigual genius (of Ishant Sharma/Wayne Parnell/Tim Southee class) I wouldd question the strength of that team. The second paragraph of your post is kind of the point i wanted to make. nonetheless just cos kids are restless these days doesn't automatically mean they aint got no talent.

 

[social]

Can you tell us who this was? As an old Sussex fan I'd be interested to know.

May not want me to mention his name on a public forum but suffice is to say that he had a similar background to Imran and spent a couple of years with the county towards the end of the latter's long career there

 

[scorpiogal]

o_O Ponting! 68* so far...

 

[pasag]

o_O Ponting! 68* so far...

Great s/r as well.

Pretty good work out for most involved.

Katich
Hughes
Ponting
Clarke
Hussey
North
Haddin
Johnson
Lee
Clark
Siddle

To be honest, I'm a bit worried about North, aside from that maiden ton he hasn't looked great. Would rather Hodge or Hussey at this stage although don't feel too strongly about it. Lee is bowling for his place in the next innings you'd think. Seems to still be bowling too short.

 

[Nate]

North will be fine. I have seen the future.

 

[pasag]

North will be fine. I have seen the future.

Hope so, genuinely want to see him do well.

 

[Noble One]

Confident that North will perform during the Ashes. If it was one of D Hussey or Hodge in his place I wouldn't have any more confidence.

Hope he holds his place, dread the idea of any of the current Australia A middle order being flown over to England (Ferguson, Voges, White and Paine).

 

[Prince EWS]

I definitely support North's selection in the team, but I can't agree that he's a better batsman than Hodge. I'm in favour of being there because, despite obviously being primarily a batsman, he's a genuine fifth bowler these days as well IMO. Katich is a good partnership breaker but if we need someone to get through a fair number of overs as the fifth bowler, I think North at 6 really complements the four quicks well.

 

[social]

Be much easier for North if Hussey started rotating the strike a bit - s/r of 33 against a second-string county attack is not pretty

 

[scorpiogal]

North gone for 11.

 

[four_or_six]

It's good to see you guys have such a free-flowing batsman coming in at 6.

 

[Nate]

Butt hee kan ball guyz !

 

[Scaly piscine]

Hmm interesting innings. Going at nearly 4 an over yet a finger spinner has bowled 20 overs for 46.

 

[andruid]

Hmm interesting innings. Going at nearly 4 an over yet a finger spinner has bowled 20 overs for 46.

Finger spinners are not useless

 

[oitoitoi]

North gone for 11.

Reckon North's going to have a bad summer, predicting Anderson to be all over him, his footwork is dire.

 

[inbox24]

Haha, I hope he fails. When you start picking number six batsman randomly that's what you get. It should have been Hodge and then Hussey.

 

[Richard]

Those three being Surrey, West Sussex and East Sussex presumably?

You've gone off on one about this before, Richard, in the case of Luke Wright. I think you more or less accepted that you didn't know what you were talking about on that occasion, and I suspect the same may be true this time.

Yes, players move from one county to another in order to further his career. Shock! Horror!
Let's write him off with such other journeymen as SF Barnes and Don Bradman.

With Wright it was a case of not knowing what had happened; I certainly do with Hamilton-Brown. Wright was signed against the will of his former county, who tried to keep him; Hamilton-Brown wanted to move himself. Nonetheless, I thought Surrey imported him from somewhere else, but may be wrong about that.

I don't see that a young player has much chance of furthering his career by moving. Not that there is no chance whatsoever; but that mostly it is a waste of effort.

 

[Richard]

Moving does help people get a break though. You can learn more by gaining experience playing for a county than you do playing second XI cricket, because you're testing yourself against better players, and I expect you also have more support.

As you know, I disagree that you get better by gaining experience of playing for a county, playing international cricket etc. The only way you get better is by practising, mostly in the nets. If you move becase you're not getting the support, that is, of course, fair enough, but if so it reflects terribly on whatever county is involved.

There are a number of players who have gained one way or another from moving teams. Gilchrist, Watson, Hauritz, Swann, Sidebottom. I'm trying to think of a young England player who might have had a positive move... I'm not sure I can off the top of my head, but perhaps the old 18 county system and fewer international players meant it was less of an issue in the past.

Edit: Tim Ambrose, there we are.

I actually disagree completely that any of these benefited at all from moving teams - I'd say they were all good enough that they'd have done well, maybe better, by staying at home. Sidebottom, for instance, was in my view very ill-advised to leave Yorkshire and it damaged Yorkshire's prospects by letting him go. We'd kill for him now. Swann might very well have enjoyed even more success than he has of late if he'd stayed at Northants, because it's the most spin-friendly deck in the country. Hauritz is rubbish whether at Qld or NSW. Ambrose always clearly had potential and was merely a late developer - I'd say there's precisely nothing to suggest that his move to Warwickshire induced the fulfilling of his talent. I could go on.

 

[Richard]

Jonathan Clare, couldn't get a game for Lancashire second XI, went to Derbyshire and got in to the academy last winter. Would you suggest he should just give up on any cricket career because he happened to be born and grew up in a county with so many fast bowlers?

Not neccessarily, but he could quite easily have broken into Lancs' (first) team if he'd kept trying.