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Cricket

Leysy Days said:
To be fair S.Marsh was tearing up the Shield this summer as well.

Marsh always tears it up at Shield level, and consistently fails at Test level. if he was 30 i could understand why they would keep giving him opportunities. but he is not.
 
Leysy Days said:
Lastly when are Victoria actually going to contribute to the national team with the willow.

The list going back to Deean Jones reads:

Finch
Handscomb
Harris (WA)
Maxwell
Quiney
McDonald
Hodge
White
Elliott
Phillips

In 30 years Elliott with 21 Tests the most successful. About time a state this size started pulling it's weight.

Hopefully Pucovsky can get himself right and change that, he has the right cricket mindset to. Hold out big hopes for him.

Maxwell and Hodge are probably the 2 harshest treated batsman since Jones.
 
Yallop learned a lot was my captain and coach at South Melbourne a few years after he was Aussie Captain . Around the time of the SA rebel tours . Top Bloke , great cricket mind and very encouraging captain. But was made Aussie captain too early he was not ready for it ..
 
Agree with Leysy's top post most particularly about the scheduling.
In most summers, the Sydney Test is the last one (if it isn't, it is most likely followed only by a few matches against an (ideally) lesser opponent, like this year).
So there is really absolutely no need for any Shield cricket after the New Year.
Get it done. It would be a radical change in thinking but absolutely essential these days.
Then play the BBL after that.

Swimming against the tide here but I am not convinced our batting is the entire problem.
Yes, our bowlers seem to do OK numbers-wise, but when I watch the games, I just think our guys don't move it enough laterally to trouble anyone, certainly no where near as much as the Indians have been this summer.
I wonder how the Indian batsmen would go against their own bowlers and our batsmen against ours too.

Having said that, I agree that the selection of our batting has been deplorable.
It seems to me they like to pick some players they ultimately don't want, so they can drop them as soon as they have a bad run and be discarded, and then the selectors can ignore them with the excuse that they've been tried and failed.
Burns, Renshaw, Maxwell.
My top six would be (in order), Harris, Burns or Renshaw, Khawaja, Head, Maxwell, and I'd give Finch a go at 6 before writing him off.

The Wade question is an interesting one.
If you pick him, do you then question Paine's worth to the team?
I know Paine is streets ahead of Wade as a keeper, but is the difference between the two worth it compared to an extra specialist batsman?
 
23.21.159 said:
Agree with Leysy's top post most particularly about the scheduling.
In most summers, the Sydney Test is the last one (if it isn't, it is most likely followed only by a few matches against an (ideally) lesser opponent, like this year).
So there is really absolutely no need for any Shield cricket after the New Year.
Get it done. It would be a radical change in thinking but absolutely essential these days.
Then play the BBL after that.

Swimming against the tide here but I am not convinced our batting is the entire problem.
Yes, our bowlers seem to do OK numbers-wise, but when I watch the games, I just think our guys don't move it enough laterally to trouble anyone, certainly no where near as much as the Indians have been this summer.
I wonder how the Indian batsmen would go against their own bowlers and our batsmen against ours too.

Having said that, I agree that the selection of our batting has been deplorable.
It seems to me they like to pick some players they ultimately don't want, so they can drop them as soon as they have a bad run and be discarded, and then the selectors can ignore them with the excuse that they've been tried and failed.
Burns, Renshaw, Maxwell.
My top six would be (in order), Harris, Burns or Renshaw, Khawaja, Head, Maxwell, and I'd give Finch a go at 6 before writing him off.

The Wade question is an interesting one.
If you pick him, do you then question Paine's worth to the team?
I know Paine is streets ahead of Wade as a keeper, but is the difference between the two worth it compared to an extra specialist batsman?

There has been some sly accusations that we can't move it sideways now that we can't pull out the sandpaper.
 
Saker is a fraud. Shame Gillespie not involved with the national team but seems he's put some noses out of joint. Batting coach, Hick, should go too.
 
jb03 said:
There has been some sly accusations that we can't move it sideways now that we can't pull out the sandpaper.

Problem with that is we aren't even moving the new ball.
 
marella jube said:
Shame Gillespie not involved with the national team but seems he's put some noses out of joint.

Why do you say that? I'd prefer Dizzy to Langer, especially now, but I thought Langer got the job because he's been in the CA coaching system and close to the team for a while now.
 
spook said:
Good articles by Haigh (mostly) and Geeves, and agree with Leysy's posting. I can't be arsed going into detail, suffice to say Cricket Australia and the selectors are a pack of *smile*ing idiots as far as I'm concerned, and like them, 'Elite Honesty' Langer tells the truth as he wants it to be, not as it actually is.

On the Vics, Leysy: Elliott, Hodge and Jamie Siddons would all have played 100 Tests for any other country, and should have had far more opportunities than they got. Maxwell is being crucified, and Agar has been left to wilt on the vine after the most astonishing Test debut innings ever played. Cameron White has a better first-class batting average than any of the current side bar Khawaja (not that I am advocating for his selection). You can bet Ian Harvey would have got far more opportunity and would have played Test cricket if he were from one or three other states.

Having said that, Victorian cricket has not produced a Test champion batsman since Bill Lawry. From all reports Bob Cowper might have been one but he retired at 27 for financial reasons with a Test triple century and an average of 47 under his belt (first-class average rising 54). And anyway, Lawry was still playing, that's how long ago that was. Jones reckons he was a better batsman after the age of 30 but all but the last 3 of his Tests were played before then, before selectors in their wisdom decided a 21-year-old with one year in the game was a better option than the man who had just led the scoring in the most recent series. As much as I loved Damien Martyn as a player, he was not ready when they picked him, which is why it took him another 8 years to cement his spot. Meanwhile, we got 46 Tests of Greg Blewett mediocrity while Jones averaged 75 in Shield cricket.

The Victorian system is far from immune from criticism. The state selectors have picked the wrong players. My Dad, a great judge who has been involved in cricket since the 1940s and whose favourite batsman ever is still Neil Harvey, rates Warren Ayres as one of the best batsmen he's ever seen. Not Premier Cricket batsman - which is where Dad has only ever seen him bat - but any batsmen. Ayres made 7 first-class centuries as an inconsistent but talented young man, then was discarded and never picked again despite making more runs than any player in the history of the state at the next level down. 15,000+ runs, 41 centuries. Meanwhile, they put 20 Shield games into someone like Shawn Craig, not half the cricketer.

Darren Dempsey was another who should have got a go at state level. He's from Mt Gambier and played 3 first-class games for SA with no success, but the only 6 batsmen to make more runs than him in the history of Premier Cricket all played more matches. 10,000 first-grade runs at 43, with 27 tons, and they never picked him. Simon Dart similar - a few first-class games as a kid, none after the age of 23 despite nearly 9000 runs at almost 44 at Premier level. Grant Gardiner, Rohan Larkin and Ben Fletcher are other prolific scorers who should have been given greater opportunity. Aiden Blizzard had too much talent to never get a go for his home state.

And then of course, there is Victoria producing what - 56%? - of AFL footballers, which steals talent from cricket.

All eyes on Pucovski...

Ayres was a good cricketer, who had big wraps on him, his average of 34 for Victoria including 7 centuries from 83 innings would suggest that he found his level.
 
tigerman said:
Ayres was a good cricketer, who had big wraps on him, his average of 34 for Victoria including 7 centuries from 83 innings would suggest that he found his level.
It would suggest that only if you don't actually know what you are talking about. Most of his 83 innings came before he turned 25.
 
Good posting boys

Unfortunately the entire development program needs to be completely reviewed.

For a hundred years, grade and shield performances actually meant something. Those two testing grounds once upon a time produced seasoned professional players. Players ready to take on the challenge of test match cricket.

Today both competitions are completely disregarded, runs and wickets in these competitions mean nothing.

The only players being considered for tests are those in the national talent program, which immediately eliminates 75% of those players playing shield cricket.

There lies the problem, the ACB thinks it knows better and is trying to identify players early and manufacture test players through its development program, hence bypassing the need for grade and shield performances. This means guys move through the system far too quickly, they have no grounding in the hard school of cricket and no experience at spending time working their way up the ranks, having to graft and perform at all levels before being selected.


This process itself destroys the fabric of the game and the credibility of selection. Selection is now not about runs and wickets or performance, its about which young guy is seen as having the most potential as judged by the cricket development programs.

If you go back a few years this all started with the introduction of the talent identification program and the arrival of Greg Chappel into the development system. I know of occassions where state sides are forced to pick players that are in these programs over and above players they really want to play because someone in the talent programs wants them to play.

This whole process weakens the depth of our production system. Young players are smart these days they know full well if they are not picked in one of these development squads there chances of playing higher levels disappears. So the days when you came up through the grade ranks and performance saw you promoted to shield level are gone.

interestingly these kids then drop out, along with more senior players they go and play sub district where they play on decent grounds with their mates with no pressure and less travelling. This weakens the whole production line. Look at any grade side now around the country you will find at least four players in every side that would never have played first grade fifteen years ago. You can also add in the the fact that those in the state squads also do not play the number of grade games they would have done in the past as they do not need to perform to get picked.

Add in the following

1) second eleven cricket replaced by an under 23 comp to suit the talent program, where does a player in the state squad play?
2) Rookie contracts restricted to under 22 year olds, the ACB should look at the AFL system as this could provide an avenue for those late developers who dominate grade cricket and aren’t in the talent program

Sorry for the whine but our system of development is totally wrong at present, we use guess work and potential as the measure for selection when performance should be the dominating factor.

Let’s take a step back and allow the grade and shield sytem the opportunity to do what it did for us for a 100 years







You can add the following to the list of issues we also need to address.
 
Spot on, Mappa. Our domestic system was the envy of the world, and we trashed it.

Incidentally, why does Greg Chappell continue to exert such influence? We trust the judgement of a man who thought it would be a good idea to roll a ball along the ground to a batsman, who said 'Na, I don't wanna tour anymore but I wanna be captain for home series'. I would ask him what he thinks and do the opposite.