01-22-2024, 12:13 AM
My father was a cricket tragic and would often tell me about watching Bradman, Oldfield, O'Reilly, Grout, Johnston, Harvey, etc. He was a pretty good wicketkeeper himself and spent a couple of seasons at Carlton but gave it away because of the cliques. He'd compare the Carlton team to the Test team and say that it was hard to get in the team and even harder to get out. I think it's a lot easier to get out of the Test team these days, but still incredibly hard to get in.
The Australian Test team selection has always had an arcane element and I gave up trying to find any logic to it decades ago. Sometimes the selectors pull one out of the hat but there are still some ordinary selections rewarding mediocre performances while blokes shining at Sheffield Shield level are overlooked. Then there's the fixturing that often doesn't give cricketers a chance to showcase their talent at Shield level.
I was listening to a former Test cricketer on the wireless a while back. It may have been Stuart Clark. He was adamant that the 12 players selected had to be the best 12 Test cricketers on current form. He was totally opposed to the idea of "blooding" youngsters and said that their place was honing their craft in the Sheffield Shield. I think that there's a lot of merit in that approach but I would like to see promising fringe players as the 12th man/concussion sub.
Australian cricket has always struggled to produce genuine all-rounders. By that I mean a bloke who is genuinely in the best eleven for his batting or bowling, and is not far off with his other discipline. Doug Walters is a classic example of that; an elite batsman whose bowling was good enough to get by. Too many of our all-rounders can bat a bit and bowl a bit but aren't elite at either.
I think that's why Green gets a go; the selectors are desperate for a genuine all-rounder and, at his best, Green is a Test standard batsman and bowler. The problem is that his best is too infrequent and, following Stuart Clark's mantra, he should be working on becoming more consistent with the bat and ball in the Shield. The problem is that, if he's not getting regular Test games, does he focus on IPL ...
The Australian Test team selection has always had an arcane element and I gave up trying to find any logic to it decades ago. Sometimes the selectors pull one out of the hat but there are still some ordinary selections rewarding mediocre performances while blokes shining at Sheffield Shield level are overlooked. Then there's the fixturing that often doesn't give cricketers a chance to showcase their talent at Shield level.
I was listening to a former Test cricketer on the wireless a while back. It may have been Stuart Clark. He was adamant that the 12 players selected had to be the best 12 Test cricketers on current form. He was totally opposed to the idea of "blooding" youngsters and said that their place was honing their craft in the Sheffield Shield. I think that there's a lot of merit in that approach but I would like to see promising fringe players as the 12th man/concussion sub.
Australian cricket has always struggled to produce genuine all-rounders. By that I mean a bloke who is genuinely in the best eleven for his batting or bowling, and is not far off with his other discipline. Doug Walters is a classic example of that; an elite batsman whose bowling was good enough to get by. Too many of our all-rounders can bat a bit and bowl a bit but aren't elite at either.
I think that's why Green gets a go; the selectors are desperate for a genuine all-rounder and, at his best, Green is a Test standard batsman and bowler. The problem is that his best is too infrequent and, following Stuart Clark's mantra, he should be working on becoming more consistent with the bat and ball in the Shield. The problem is that, if he's not getting regular Test games, does he focus on IPL ...
“Why don’t you knock it off with them negative waves? Why don’t you dig how beautiful it is out here? Why don’t you say something righteous and hopeful for a change?” Oddball