Cricket Season Thread

[tig_prmz]

See thats what I meant, if they held onto the same bowlers from the 1st test into 2nd test, then maybe we would've had a chance in the third one if we keep the same. It is really pathetic that they get drop country's two of the best bowlers in Johnson and Hilfy and call them back after one test. Liek seriously WTF is the point of that?

And now, they get rid of Bollinger who is currently rank 13 in the ICC rankings. Top Australian bowler, they try him for one test, he fails, bring on other bowlers.

For me, it's just that they pick the best players in the country AND STICK TO EM. It is a big step from domestic to Test cricket, you cannot expect to blood in 10 different debutants in one series FFS!

 

[Peaches]

The selectors must be high. There is no reason whatsoever why Beer is in the squad. His not even a solid state player with a cemented spot. Doherty was a better option. Haurtitz is clearly the best spinner in this country. These selectors have to readmit Hauritz. Blame his injuries if you don't want egg on your face.

Hughes can do the job. Johnson I'm not sure but he has the track record and bowled awesome at the WACA against South Africa. Hopefully he can feed off that confidence.

Does Beer play or do 4 quicks with Watson and Smith bowling spin and batting at 7 (Haddin at 6)?

 

[tig_prmz]

Most possible:

1\. Hughes
2\. Watson
3\. Ponting
4\. Clarke
5\. Hussey
6\. Haddin
7\. Smith
8\. Johnson
9\. Hilfenhaus
10\. Siddle
11\. Harris

 

[alien]

how is jaques going at state level these days? with katich out i probably would have liked to see this lineup:

1\. Hughes
2\. Jaques
3\. Ponting
4\. Clarke
5\. Hussey
6\. Watson
7\. Haddin
8\. Smith
9\. Johnson
10\. Harris
11\. Bollinger

12\. Siddle

 

[Jazza]

how is jaques going at state level these days? with katich out i probably would have liked to see this lineup:

1\. Hughes
2\. Jaques
3\. Ponting
4\. Clarke
5\. Hussey
6\. Watson
7\. Haddin
8\. Smith
9\. Johnson
10\. Harris
11\. Bollinger

12\. Siddle

He has had a poor season so far, avg of 21 from 6 matches with no 50s, I guess its not much worse then Hughes.

 

[Marshall_magic]

Alien, as much as I think Watson should be in the middle order, with Katich out, I would leave him at opener, so you have one experienced guy there to partner Hughes.

Jaques has 213 runs @ 21.3 this season, not good enough for a test spot.
Hughes has 118 runs @ 16.85 this season, and needs to turn it around for the WACA test

A few other guys in contention
Khawaja has 499 @ 71 (top run scorer for the season, should be the test 3 when Ricky goes)
McDonald has 372 @ 93 (although he stikes me as a guy who can bowl and bat, but isn't good enough at either to lock down a test spot)
Sean Marsh 359 @ 72 (although he bats 3/4 for WA, if he opened he would defintely be a bolter)
Ferguson 322 @ 64 (scored ton today under pressure, almost enough for SA to hold on for a Draw [take note Aussie batsmen])
Steve Smith 162 @ 32 (had a good game today with the ball, but the poms tonked him everywhere in the tour match)

 

[alien]

im glad that north is finally out of the team but beer? i just dont understand these selectors

 

[tig_prmz]

Stuart MacGill, the former Australian Test legspinner, has slammed the decision of his country's selectors to call up Michael Beer, a slow left-armer who has played just five first-class games, for the third Ashes Test at Perth next week.
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"I am gobsmacked, shocked, I honestly cannot believe it," MacGill told Sydney's Daily Telegraph. "The team will have to change again after the next Test. Good on Michael Beer, good bloke and good player, but look at this as a job interview and show me his qualifications to get this job. He doesn't have any. He is not qualified for the job they have given him. Sending him out there next week, what are they trying to do?"
>
MacGill, who played 44 Tests before his retirement in 2008, reserved particular criticism for comments made by Andrew Hilditch, the selection panel chairman.
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"To be honest, from Andrew Hilditch's comments, he doesn't even really know who Michael Beer is. He said he'll bowl well in Perth because it's his home ground. I'm not sure Andrew thought those comments through before he made them.
>
"Look, Andrew Hilditch is a lovely bloke but someone needs to tell him Michael Beer has not spent his career playing at the WACA. Three games there and nothing better than a three-for. Honestly, there is no big picture here."
>
MacGill's criticism comes after left-arm spinner, Xavier Doherty, who was axed after the first two Tests, said the selectors were panicking when it came to picking slow bowlers. MacGill also expressed his dismay at the discarding of Nathan Hauritz, who has taken 63 wickets in 17 Tests, hit a maiden first-class hundred as a nightwatchman against South Australia on Wednesday and picked up a five-wicket haul in his last domestic game in Perth.
>
"Xavier Doherty was [an odd inclusion] too, to be honest. They are clearly telling Nathan Hauritz, 'you are never playing Test cricket again'. I don't understand that. Xavier Doherty should never have played the first two Tests. Michael Beer shouldn't be playing this one."

Interesting read this..

 

[Yossarian]

Stuart MacGill, the former Australian Test legspinner, has slammed the decision of his country's selectors to call up Michael Beer, a slow left-armer who has played just five first-class games, for the third Ashes Test at Perth next week.
>
"I am gobsmacked, shocked, I honestly cannot believe it," MacGill told Sydney's Daily Telegraph. "The team will have to change again after the next Test. Good on Michael Beer, good bloke and good player, but look at this as a job interview and show me his qualifications to get this job. He doesn't have any. He is not qualified for the job they have given him. Sending him out there next week, what are they trying to do?"
>
MacGill, who played 44 Tests before his retirement in 2008, reserved particular criticism for comments made by Andrew Hilditch, the selection panel chairman.
>
"To be honest, from Andrew Hilditch's comments, he doesn't even really know who Michael Beer is. He said he'll bowl well in Perth because it's his home ground. I'm not sure Andrew thought those comments through before he made them.
>
"Look, Andrew Hilditch is a lovely bloke but someone needs to tell him Michael Beer has not spent his career playing at the WACA. Three games there and nothing better than a three-for. Honestly, there is no big picture here."
>
MacGill's criticism comes after left-arm spinner, Xavier Doherty, who was axed after the first two Tests, said the selectors were panicking when it came to picking slow bowlers. MacGill also expressed his dismay at the discarding of Nathan Hauritz, who has taken 63 wickets in 17 Tests, hit a maiden first-class hundred as a nightwatchman against South Australia on Wednesday and picked up a five-wicket haul in his last domestic game in Perth.
>
"Xavier Doherty was [an odd inclusion] too, to be honest. They are clearly telling Nathan Hauritz, 'you are never playing Test cricket again'. I don't understand that. Xavier Doherty should never have played the first two Tests. Michael Beer shouldn't be playing this one."

Interesting read this..

He's right though. The selectors just seem to pick anyone who looks remotely promising and hope for the best. Usman Khawaja should be in the side sooner rather than later. Give him enough time to settle into test cricket and he'll be the mainstay of the batting for years to come. Really they should have just stuck with Hauritz. Nothing has convinced me that the other options are any better. Beer wouldn't even make the NSW team…

 

[Jazza]

Looks like everyone has had enough of these weird selections:

Nathan Hauritz has taken a swipe at the national selectors as bolter Michael Beer gets ready to become Australia's 10th tweaker since the retirement of Shane Warne.
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Hauritz, who was overlooked for the Ashes series after a modest tour of India, has already been joined on the scrapheap by his replacement Xavier Doherty.
>
Beer, a tall left-arm orthodox bowler, and part-time leg-spinner Steve Smith, are in the 12-man Australia squad to face England in the third Ashes Test in Perth.
>
Asked if selectors had given him an indication as to what they were after in a spinner, Hauritz said: "Not one bit."
>
"I think the selectors have tried different options and are looking for different things to do," he told Fox Sports.
>
"The guys who are bowling spin just need to make sure they are playing well, bowling consistently and go from there.
>
"At the end of the day you don't know what the selectors are looking at."
>
Mild-mannered Hauritz, who has kept a low profile in the wake of his Test sacking, said he had not received any advice from the selectors in recent weeks.
>
Former Australia spinner Gavin Robertson said the demise of Hauritz, who was a standout last summer on home soil, could be a case of the selectors being too proud to change their minds on him.
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The man himself hasn't given up hope, even daring to dream of a return this Ashes series.
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"The spinning option is always very contentious and it's going to be like that for the rest of our careers," Hauritz said.
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"It's always very tough to watch but it's even tougher to watch when Australia aren't winning," he added.
>
"I am an Australia fanatic and I want to see the boys play well.
>
"I will be watching but it will be very tough to swallow when they are playing."
\

Besieged Australia selection boss Andew Hilditch must resign from his post - or be sacked by Cricket Australia after the World Cup.
>
Fox Sports Exclusive: WACA Ground
WACA
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That is the view of one of Australia cricket's most respected selectors as it emerged a staggering 36 players have worn the baggy green cap since the retirement of star trio Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath and Justin Langer four years ago.
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Of that group, 17 have played fewer than five Tests, underlining the selection merry-go-round that has sparked queries over stability during Hilditch's tumultuous reign.
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Hilditch, whose contract expires after the World Cup in April, is understood to be keen to extend his tenure amid reports Australia's selection policy on his watch will be a key agenda item when CA conducts an Ashes post-mortem.
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But former panellist John Benaud says Hilditch, who replaced Trevor Hohns as chairman of selectors in April 2006 after joining the panel 10 years earlier, has run his race.
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"I'd say it's time," said Benaud, part of the selection panel that handed Shane Warne his Test debut in 1992.
>
"In terms of Andrew's contract being up, I can't see the merit in him continuing.
>
"I believe about five years is a reasonable tenure and he might want to keep going, but they have to change the balance of the selection panel.
>
"I don't know a lot about Andrew, I know his cricket background, but I think we need to cut our losses and bring in some fresh blood. I'm not saying the chairman should be the whipping boy, because Andrew has had some successes, but I think this panel has been too conservative for some time.
>
"It's pretty clear the influence of Greg Chappell (appointed to a full-time role in August) is coming to bear on the selection panel.
>
"I don't think it would be remiss to say that. That must put a lot of pressure on Andrew Hilditch as the chairman of selectors to have Greg there in a superior position in a full-time capacity."
>
Former Test opener Hilditch has weathered heavy criticism for the panel's treatment of spinners, with nine tweakers having been chewed up and spat out since Warne's retirement 47 months ago.
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But the deeper problem is the chronic shake-up of the Test side that has seen 36 players - the equivalent of three cricket teams - deployed since Australia's 5-0 Ashes rout in 2007.
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Eight players - Beau Casson, Peter George, Brad Hodge, Bryce McGain, Clint McKay, Graham Manou, Chris Rogers and Shaun Tait - have played just one Test.
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Benaud said the high turnover of Test stars was evidence Australia's selectors needed to stabilise the team and adopt a pick-and-stick mentality.
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He also questioned having three former opening batsmen in Hilditch, Jamie Cox and David Boon on the panel concurrently.
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"I'm not sure what this current panel is doing, particularly in relation to the Ashes series. There's been some almighty change and you wonder what the purpose is," Benaud said.
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"It's ridiculous to have three opening batsmen as the core of your selection panel with the same personalities. Selection panels should be like a cricket team, you need some variety in there.
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"That number of players (36) is an incredibly high turnover in such a short time. There are obviously reasons, sometimes there's form and injury reasons, so not every selection can be seen as a gamble.
>
"But that pretty much tells you the selectors have been grasping at straws. You get the feeling there hasn't been a solid plan in place."

I'm pretty sure I have read that Greg Matthews and Allan Border have come out as well calling Beer's selection "astounding".

 

[alien]

have u heard what warnie's been up to lately in the uk
http://au.news.yahoo.com/latest/a/-/latest/8496257/warne-hurley-having-alleged-affair/5/#comments" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
so not only does warnie set the field better than ponting, he plays the field better too

 

[stryker]

hahaha yeah classic Warnie…..

Did you hear Will Andersons quote about the story?

"..I think Warnie may have got confused when everyone said that he should come out of retirement and stick it up the English..."

lol.

 

[alien]

hahaha yeah classic Warnie…..

Did you hear Will Andersons quote about the story?

"..I think Warnie may have got confused when everyone said that he should come out of retirement and stick it up the English..."

lol.

:laughing:

 

[alien]

The true explanation, assuming for the moment that the paper's claims are proved accurate, is that Liz was driven by the patriotic instinct to keep Warne in London, and prevent him from returning to Australia to revive the ailing Ashes side. She did what nicely bred girls routinely did in the age of Empire. She lay back and thought of England.

 

[Peaches]

How is Beer any different to Doherty? Doherty at least was experienced. The selectors need to man up and back Hauritz.
I read an article in one the papers today that showed the average of every spin bowler since 06-07\. Hauritz' is about 29, the only man under 30\. Everyone else is at least 34, with the taller spinners doing the best like Paul Harris and Benn from the Windies. Than there is the likes of Kaneria and Kumble. Shorter blokes like Murali and Harnhajan were way down on averages. The only tall spinner with a poor average is Ashley Giles but his name and spinner should not be mentioned together. This Beer blokes is supposed to be up there in height. Thats what the selectors are thinking, height. Yet they ignore the Hauritz record.

 

[Marshall_magic]

Watching Fox Sports News today they showed Warne's early career record (I was unaware of it as I didn't follow cricket then I was too young), and it was attrocious. He had a 1/60 odd, a 3/11 (cleaning up the tail) and a lot of 0/100+ digs in his first 4 tests, before doing well in his 5th. The hosts talked about, if he came in now and started like that, he would have been dropped, had the red felt pen line ruled through his name, and be destined to play Sheffield Shield for life, and we know how that turned out. The selectors need to pick some guys and PERSIST, give them time to have a go (this should have been done a while back, not now during an Ashes), Hughes now knows he has 3 tests to perform, a lot easier for him than if he had 1, he can relax a little. For our next series, pick an XI, tell them, barring injury or they have the whole series to prove themselves. Problem is this should have been done last summer, and we would have had a better XI heading into this summer, being closer to the answer, but right now we are running around in circles and going no where.

 

[Jazza]

Watching Fox Sports News today they showed Warne's early career record (I was unaware of it as I didn't follow cricket then I was too young), and it was attrocious. He had a 1/60 odd, a 3/11 (cleaning up the tail) and a lot of 0/100+ digs in his first 4 tests, before doing well in his 5th. The hosts talked about, if he came in now and started like that, he would have been dropped, had the red felt pen line ruled through his name, and be destined to play Sheffield Shield for life, and we know how that turned out. The selectors need to pick some guys and PERSIST, give them time to have a go (this should have been done a while back, not now during an Ashes), Hughes now knows he has 3 tests to perform, a lot easier for him than if he had 1, he can relax a little. For our next series, pick an XI, tell them, barring injury or they have the whole series to prove themselves. Problem is this should have been done last summer, and we would have had a better XI heading into this summer, being closer to the answer, but right now we are running around in circles and going no where.

Yeh you're right, Warnie did get dropped a couple of times early in his career, after his 2nd Test, they played in Perth so understandably he was dropped for another quick, and then following Summer he was dropped for the 1st Test vs West Indies for Greg Matthews I think and then when he was recalled again he took a big bag. I think he took 7/54 or something like that, and I got highlights of those wickets and even most of those wickets were batsman slogging, although he got Richie Richardson with his first flipper.
He took 1/150 on debut with Tendulkar and Shastri going after him, even that one wicket was a catch in the outfield. The man he got out, Ravi Shastri said to him after the game, he 'will bowl a lot worse then that and pick up wickets'. At one stage I think his record was 1/330 until he cleaned up the Sri Lankan tail and then a few tests later he took a big bag against the West Indies.
So it took him a year and probably a dozen tests to start producing results and he admitted that when he first came in, he didn't feel confident or feel as though he was meant to be there on such limited experience. Before his debut Test, he was 12th man for Victoria.

 

[Gary_Bakerloo]

Yeh you're right, Warnie did get dropped a couple of times early in his career, after his 2nd Test, they played in Perth so understandably he was dropped for another quick, and then following Summer he was dropped for the 1st Test vs West Indies for Greg Matthews I think and then when he was recalled again he took a big bag. I think he took 7/54 or something like that, and I got highlights of those wickets and even most of those wickets were batsman slogging, although he got Richie Richardson with his first flipper.
He took 1/150 on debut with Tendulkar and Shastri going after him, even that one wicket was a catch in the outfield. The man he got out, Ravi Shastri said to him after the game, he 'will bowl a lot worse then that and pick up wickets'. At one stage I think his record was 1/330 until he cleaned up the Sri Lankan tail and then a few tests later he took a big bag against the West Indies.
So it took him a year and probably a dozen tests to start producing results and he admitted that when he first came in, he didn't feel confident or feel as though he was meant to be there on such limited experience. Before his debut Test, he was 12th man for Victoria.

He may have gone for 1/150 in his first test, but he did bowl 45 overs (ie: 3 per over). That economy rate was unheard of for a leg spinner at the time as they were viewed as an expensive wicket takers.

 

[Jazza]

Yeh you're right, Warnie did get dropped a couple of times early in his career, after his 2nd Test, they played in Perth so understandably he was dropped for another quick, and then following Summer he was dropped for the 1st Test vs West Indies for Greg Matthews I think and then when he was recalled again he took a big bag. I think he took 7/54 or something like that, and I got highlights of those wickets and even most of those wickets were batsman slogging, although he got Richie Richardson with his first flipper.
He took 1/150 on debut with Tendulkar and Shastri going after him, even that one wicket was a catch in the outfield. The man he got out, Ravi Shastri said to him after the game, he 'will bowl a lot worse then that and pick up wickets'. At one stage I think his record was 1/330 until he cleaned up the Sri Lankan tail and then a few tests later he took a big bag against the West Indies.
So it took him a year and probably a dozen tests to start producing results and he admitted that when he first came in, he didn't feel confident or feel as though he was meant to be there on such limited experience. Before his debut Test, he was 12th man for Victoria.

He may have gone for 1/150 in his first test, but he did bowl 45 overs (ie: 3 per over). That economy rate was unheard of for a leg spinner at the time as they were viewed as an expensive wicket takers.

Well it depends what context you see it as, all the Indians barring Tendulkar played pretty defensively and all the Australian bowlers except Warne were very tidy, Warne was by far the most expensive.
But in any case the selectors back then didnt banish him to Shield cricket for 5 years, they stuck by him for all but 2 Test matches (vs India at the WACA 91/92 and vs West Indies at the Gabba 92/93) at the start of his career.
Thats what the selectors have got to do with the spinners now, as Warne always says, spinners need to feel loved! And they don't recieve that with Ponting's captaincy and the selectors. To me their biggest blunders have been the handling of Krezja and Hauritz with Casson not far behind.

 

[Gary_Bakerloo]

To me their biggest blunders have been the handling of Krezja and Hauritz with Casson not far behind.

Hard to judge with Casson as he had chronic fatigue. Hauritz has been given every opportunity to cement his place. He was essentially on borrowed time since the Cardiff test.

The treatment of Krezja has been a disgrace. The biggest turner of the ball in the country, but he does not get along with Ponting.