News relating to cricket
following a World Cup can be like having soup on Boxing Day after a big
Christmas meal. Pretty light on and a struggle for cricket writers and readers
alike after a glut of coverage in the preceeding 6 weeks.
Thankfully, Shane Warne was
able to create reams of printable material in the immediate aftermath of the
match by turning the focus from the teams victory & the successes (and
failings) of the tournament to one of the great questions of all time: “howthirsty are you?”.
Possibly wanting to divert
from the embarrassment of Warne, Cricket Australia (CA) have announced their
contracted players for the next year, as well as the touring team that will be
going to (at least) the West Indies in May.
The selection of players,
and non-selection of other players, always creates much debate and CA have
seemingly outdone themselves in creating more reams of print and interest in
the team through this announcement.
Either they are ridiculously
confident of success in this series and in the coming years, or they have
jumped the shark.
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| Seen here: CA's selectors |
As a rule, teams are
selected on the basis of probability of success, ability to execute team plans,
balance, experience, depth and youth.
CA also have another category;
“reward”, which is usually reserved for senior players who have served the teamwell in the past & are being given another year to top-up their
superannuation.
Looking at the contracted
team first, it is pretty easy to categorise the team into “experienced” and
“future”, including whether the “future” players are proven or not, as shown in
the table below:
At first glance, this
categorisation shows a good balance between Experienced (5) and Future players
(6). There is possibly some controversy
in the inclusion of Ryan Harris and Shane Watson as “Reward” players, but given
their history of injuries it is unlikely they will be playing much in 2016.
In Watsons case, this is
exacerbated by All-Rounders of the quality of Mitchell Marsh, James Faulkner
and Glenn Maxwell all waiting for their turn.
The definition of Mitchell
Starc as 'unproven' may rankle some too, particularly given that he was the
Player of the Tournament at the World Cup, but he is still unproven at Testlevel despite his potential and ability.
The last category, unkown,
is probably the most interesting. The
inclusion of George Bailey in the squad is probably largely due to his
experience, as well as the need for a back-up middle-order batsman to Michael
Clarke’s back, but his red ball average hardly justifies it.
Baileys age, 32, hardly puts
him in the future category either.
Aaron Finch’s inclusion
seems to be something of a calculated risk.
The Captain of the T20 team, Finch is a leader, tactically astute and a
proven hitter in short-form cricket. He
is also an opening batsman, which the list only has 2 of (depending on how you
classify Watson).
That being said, he is also
lacking form in red ball cricket and his recent One-Day form is hardly
convincing.
The inclusion of Shaun Marsh
is, as ever, the sort of thing to make your brain explode. Surely he has photos of someone? Joe Burns must throwing one of the worlds
best tantrums right now.
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| Artists impression of Joe Burns. |
Moving onto the touring
team, the list has a similar look:
Peter Siddle is obviously
being rewarded for years of service in the team with a nice holiday to the West
Indies, a good place for bananas, and possibly as bowling cover for pitches
expected to take spin that will require bowlers to hold up an end.
The inclusion of PeterNevill is also a positive, as he provides Australia with a wicket-keeper
batsman (rather than a batsman-wicketkeeper) who can also bat in the middle
order and has leadership abilities. You
almost wonder why he wasn’t contracted ahead of Bailey, S Marsh etc.
Fawad Ahmed and Adam Voges
are obviously being rewarded for good form in the Sheffield Shield, which is
the right message to all Australian cricketers.
Both have momentum and form
on their side and could do well on the West Indian pitches, at least. As Guardian writer Geoff Lemon reminded me,
leg-spinners like Ahmed have had some success for Australia in England in the
past.
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| Not naming names. |
And there again, is Shaun
Marsh. Nothing against him personally,
but his selection really does remind me of the time Fonzie was put up to this
dare:
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