Selection strategies by the opposite team?

[silentstriker]

Ajit Wadekar says of his 1971 West Indies tour:

Though our players are good players of spin, it was our strategy not to go after offspinner Jack Noreiga in the tour game in a bid to help him win a Test place in place of the more dangerous Lance Gibbs - and that was just what happened.

Has that ever happened? The opposition players deliberatly made a player look good just so that he could be picked, and so they can belt him around in the real test match?

I'm sure it has happened, but has anyone admitted to that?

 

[Autobahn]

Well Zim has recently been doing the first bit...

 

[BoyBrumby]

TBF to Noreiga he did take 9/95 in the first innings of the second test. Even LG might've struggled to match those figures.

 

[chaminda_00]

You could say England tired their best to get Martin Love in the Australian side a couple years ago.

 

[Richard]

Some would claim Shane Warne kidded people that he couldn't bowl to Graeme Hick in 1993.

 

[Richard]

Ajit Wadekar says of his 1971 West Indies tour:

Though our players are good players of spin, it was our strategy not to go after offspinner Jack Noreiga in the tour game in a bid to help him win a Test place in place of the more dangerous Lance Gibbs - and that was just what happened.

Has that ever happened? The opposition players deliberatly made a player look good just so that he could be picked, and so they can belt him around in the real test match?

I'm sure it has happened, but has anyone admitted to that?

In any case - Gibbs was hardly that dangerous any more in 1971.

 

[Richard]

You could say England tired their best to get Martin Love in the Australian side a couple years ago.

Thing is, of course, when we succeeded Love still managed to get some in the MCG Test.

 

[FaaipDeOiad]

Some would claim Shane Warne kidded people that he couldn't bowl to Graeme Hick in 1993.

In his book, Warne said that Hick played him very well that day, but that Border had specifically ordered him not to bowl any variations, and to just bowl leg breaks. So I don't think Warne was letting Hick make runs, merely saving his best performances for the tests. Apparently he rates Hick quite highly as a batsman anyway. Along with Robin Smith he is the English batsman he praises the most.

 

[Arjun]

Is that what got Munaf Patel a Test call-up against England? Surprisingly, he succeeded even there.

 

[Richard]

In his book, Warne said that Hick played him very well that day, but that Border had specifically ordered him not to bowl any variations, and to just bowl leg breaks. So I don't think Warne was letting Hick make runs, merely saving his best performances for the tests. Apparently he rates Hick quite highly as a batsman anyway. Along with Robin Smith he is the English batsman he praises the most.

Which is weird given that Robin Smith was your archetypal hopeless SAffie\English spin-facer...
The fact is, Warne was not letting anyone see the full repetoire... and for my mind that's kidding people that you can't bowl as well as you know you can.

 

[luckyeddie]

Has anyone suggested yet that opposition players deliberately get out to Harmison?

/genuinely curious

 

[Richard]

Nope.
Has Harmison ever even played a tour-game when in serious consideration for a Test?

 

[vic_orthdox]

Which is weird given that Robin Smith was your archetypal hopeless SAffie\English spin-facer...

Probably has something to do with the Hampshire connection, wouldn't it?

 

[Richard]

Well... though I presume Robin is still pretty well involved with Hants in retirement, IIRR they only had 1 season on the staff together (2000).

 

[TT Boy]

Probably has something to do with the Hampshire connection, wouldn't it?

Why would you big someone up just because you was once team-mates/work colleagues? Smith was a good player, sure crap player of spin but against pace he was one of the best around, Warne probably appreciated his talent against that not against him.

 

[Richard]

Robin Smith was one of the best players of seamers you could ever wish to see...
But I can't understand why a spinner would praise someone so fulsomely if they were so hopeless against his type of bowling (and Robin Smith really was HOPELESS against quality spin).

 

[FaaipDeOiad]

Which is weird given that Robin Smith was your archetypal hopeless SAffie\English spin-facer...
The fact is, Warne was not letting anyone see the full repetoire... and for my mind that's kidding people that you can't bowl as well as you know you can.

Jack is right about the Hampshire connection. Warne was interested in getting a county stint for a while before he actually did, and it was his friendship with Smith (which dated back to the 93 Ashes I believe) which led him to join Hampshire, and they became closer whilst playing there presumably.

He dedicated a bit of time in his book to criticising the English selectors, and Hick and Smith are the examples he gave of fine players who had their careers hurt by being dropped and picked up again at strange times and for strange reasons. He said that Smith being dropped for his poor play of spin was a poor move, because Smith wasn't any worse than many other English batsmen (indeed, the implication was that Warne found bowling to Smith more difficult than some of the others), and Warne's solution was to bat Smith higher up the order, which was apparently what Smith wanted as well.

I believe he rated Hick because of that tour match against Worcs, primarily.

 

[FaaipDeOiad]

Anyway, regarding the original point about Hick and Warne, I think there's a difference between holding back a bit in a tour match yourself and deliberately failing to make another player appear better. I don't think Warne let Hick score runs off him just to make Hick look good, he just didn't do everything he could to stop Hick from doing so. He said something along the lines of "it's always hard to give away runs, even when you had been ordered by your captain to bowl within your best" about playing against Hick. And he also said he was impressed by the innings.

 

[honestbharani]

*waits for someone to say that Warne allowed Sachin to smash him in that tour game against Mumbai to give him false confidence*

 

[deeps]

no but we've deliberately dropped catches of a particular batsman. They needed 6 an over and one of their openers was batting with a SR of about 20, and was taking alot of strike. We figured if we'd keep him in for long enough we would win comfortably. He got out (bowled) after abotu 15 overs, for 22 runs. Required run rate when he got out: 9.something. We dropped him about 3 times on purpose

Interestingly he was captain too.

Oh, and we won