By Adrian Meredith
MELBOURN, Australia (TheSportsNEXT) November 4, 2012: The fall from dominance since 2007 is claimed to be because of the absence of Adam Gilchrist, Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath - plus a range of other long term players with varying degrees of success. But those players could have been covered.
Let's look instead at an alternative explanation - that the selections have stunk.
And let's look at some major examples of this:
Marcus North - Australia were in big trouble and they made a selection call from out of nowhere in playing two all rounders in Marcus North and Andrew McDonald. They both did well and led an Australian revival, series victory and a return to number 1 test team. Yay! But then they had to drop one. Andrew McDonald was doing better and had the better domestic record but they went the wrong way and picked North. Fair enough but then after he kept failing they kept picking him. The guy played 21 test matches, averaging just 35 - a good 15 less than the other batsmen in the Australian team at the time. He won Australia 3 of those 21 matches - and cost them most of the rest.
Brad Haddin - He was never the 2nd best keeper in the country behind Gilchrist - he was the best batsman of the keepers. Once he started playing for Australia, the fielding standard dropped considerably. He kept dropping catches, missing stumpings and letting byes go by and he kept getting selected. He played 43 tests, averaging 35 with the bat - a pretty decent return and had a batting average of 31 and strike rate of 81 in ODIs, which is also decent for a keeper. Not good enough purely as a batsman though and his performance with the gloves were far below that expected of an international wicket keeper.
Tim Paine - Why would you replace one mistake with another? Tim Paine also was an ordinary keeper yet was selected based on his batting ability. He played 4 tests and 28 ODIs as back up to Brad Haddin, averaging 35 in tests but a mere 29 in ODIs - at a strike rate of just 68 - below Haddin in both formats. His keeping was comparable with Haddin - both are way below international standard though - and neither are good enough batsmen to play as batsmen who keep.
Simon Katich - It was never a problem that he was selected - the problem was that he was dumped. What did he do wrong? He was the best player in the Australian test team, in great form, doing everything right - then suddenly dumped. And he still hasn't come back! It is just insanity! There was Marcus North getting a series of low scores and still staying in the side, all the while Simon Katich was doing everything right but being ignored. Apparently they just decided he was too old and that was it. The same reason they used for not giving David Hussey a test call up. Except that Katich was already in the side!
Shaun Marsh - He has a great ODI record, and a fantastic T20 record - but that should have been the end of it. On a hunch, they gave him a shot in the test format - in spite of a terrible FC record - and after he scored a century they were all saying he was amazing. Except that it was just one innings, and he needed to do a lot more. After 7 tests his average dropped to just 27 and he was finally dumped. They should have dumped him after 3 tests. But it had to wait until he was getting out for a duck every innings in all 3 formats before they finally dumped him for good. He should be playing international T20s though, but tests should never have been on the radar.
Peter Forrest - Okay so he didn't play tests (thank God) but what a mistake was it to play him? The guy wasn't even playing for his state regularly before he moved and had a couple of good innings and suddenly he is in the ODI team! He scored an ODI century too, so surely that hunch paid off, right? Except it was a slow century, and an ODI strike rate of 60 simply isn't good enough. After 15 ODIs his average slumped to 26 and a strike rate of 65 is nowhere near good enough. He was briefly talked about as playing tests, or at least being in the mix for tests, but now it looks like he might struggle to play much more domestic cricket.
Phil Hughes - There was no problem at all with Hughes initially getting selected - he was averaging over 60 in FC cricket and was in amazing form, as a young player to boot. Get him in! But then his unorthodox technique was found out in a big way by English bowler Steve Harmison and soon everyone knew how to get him out. So he was dumped, and quite rightly too. He had to fix his technique. But then, and this was the big problem - they brought him back in spite of him not fixing his technique! He was out of form, his technique was being exploited, and yet he came back! They kept him in too! Finally, they dropped him, after 17 tests and an average of 34, hopefully never to play again - at least unless he fixes his technique.
Ed Cowan - There are worse players than Cowan about - at least he is regularly in his state side, and averages a decent 40 in FC cricket - but he wasn't in particularly good form and was basically picked on a hunch. He hasn't even managed a test century - but with 3 half centuries in 7 tests it is considered to be good enough - in spite of an average of 29! Now, in spite of being out of form and with an average so bad, he retains his spot! Wow! I have him ranked as 21st best batsman in the country yet he makes it to the top 6 in the test squad! Why?
Rob Quiney - The guy averages 38 in FC cricket, is an ODI specialist who should be on the fringes of ODI selection, but suddenly they put him in the test team. Why? Oh, because he scored a half century against South Africa playing for Australia A. He scored 85 in a match in which 3 others scored half centuries and 1 other (Alex Doolan) scored 160 not out! It was a 3 day practice match that barely got into the 3rd innings, with South African batsmen retiring out once they got to 50. For that, and only that, in spite of a string of single figure scores besides, he is suddenly in the team! Incredible!
Now, I could be wrong. After all, I was supposedly wrong to criticise Forrest - who scored a century! I was also supposedly wrong to criticise Shaun Marsh. Not to mention the support that Brad Haddin and Tim Paine had.
But I don't think that I am wrong. I wasn't wrong in any of the others listed above.
If I am wrong, Rob Quiney will get a century, which will then give him a place for the next 15 tests in a row, by which time he will average 25 and have cost Australia a spot in the top 10.
If I am right, Rob Quiney will get out cheaply and the selectors will swing the axe.
Let's hope that I am right.
