(12-12-2017, 02:13 AM)JonHenry link Wrote:Hodge? He could undoubtedly play but was he better than Ponting, S Waugh, M Waugh, D Martin, M Hussey? They are the guys he was fighting for a spot with.
Yes for some of them!
Hodge clearly had the runs on the board literally, more so than M Waugh or Martin. Martin is another mystery selection on many occasions.
Back then though, the test and one day teams were one and the same, it was like playing for NSW and Australia. When you got a gig at one the other was an automatic, the old jokes about one cap on your head and the other in a brown paper bag for later don't exist for nothing!
(12-12-2017, 02:13 AM)JonHenry link Wrote:Dean Jones and Elliott had plenty of chances.
Are you saying they failed?
I suspect you'll find Jones got the kibosh because of his mouth, not his performances.
Elliott's problem was that Australia was generally crap at the time he was playing, and he got his last gig to the West Indies with a team playing on pitches that were designed to simulate lunar landing environment. He was an opener forced to bat at three behind Langer and Hayden which seems fair, with Lehman and Martyn clinging to diminishing careers as support. That was a weird time for Australian test cricket, they had Katich batting just above Gilchrist who was captaining, no offense to Gilchrist but seriously? :o
"Ruck, ruck, ruck, ruck ....... Ruck, ruck, ruck, ruck"