Australian Cricket - Crisis, What Crisis ??

[ElwoodBlues1]

I don't consider Curtley Ambrose, Joel Garner or Jeff Thompson less skilled than James Anderson, they just have different skills!

In contrast I could probably claim that recent events and rule changes limiting short pitched bowling, to make the game friendlier to participate in at lower levels, have left batsmen less skilled in dealing with it. What would Ian Chappell, Gordon Greenidge or Viv Richards have done to Wagner, Kim Hughes even and Kim was hardly a hard man of the game?

That doesn't make the Wade / Wagner tussle less interesting, it just makes it different from the norm and somewhat extending the range of Test Cricket beyond modern vanilla!

I'll disagree on Anderson and the those three former quicks...the latter were intimidators who banged it in short to hit batsman, Thommos variation was the sand shoe crusher.
Anderson has to be more skillful because he lacks the height and pace so needs to be doing more with the ball, sure bowling a good bouncer takes some skill but not really at the same level as
bowling a genuine outswinger when conditions dont suit IMHO.
Kim Hughes actually commented when he played that Australia should comb the beaches to find tall athletic specimens that could match the Windies tall rangy quicks...

Wade and Wagner are hardly Lillee and Viv, its a boring contest between two average cricketers, watching Wade body up to Wagner's harmless 130k rubbish doesnt exactly get the juices flowing.Wagner has achieved notoriety and a high world ranking for bowling a short carp line at inept batsman but skillful I dont call him, I call Boult and Southee skilled. I'll agree the batting skill in playing short pitched bowling is poor overall these days compared to the past and that viewing persistent short pitched bowling is different in a novelty way but its not quality cricket that I enjoy. Broad to Warner or Hazlewood to Root is what I would rather watch..