Australia: Who Is To Blame For This Farce

[jeesh]

I became a fan of the Australian cricket team as an eight year old because of Steve and Mark Waugh. I remember i even wrote an article about the two in Rising Stars of Daily Star. Over the years i became quite a follower of the Aussies. Ashamed to say i even supported them against Bangladesh in the 1999 WC. The wizardry of Warne, the brilliance of McGrath, the fighting spirit of Steve Waugh, the elegance of Mark Waugh, the arrogance of Ponting, the aggression of Gilchrist, the fiery pace of Lee, the stubbornness of Bevan, power of Hayden. Australia totally changed the game of cricket. They even made test cricket more exciting and interesting. There was a point where they adopted a strategy of run rates in excess of 4-4.5 in tests. Any cricket lover even their fierce rivals couldnt stop admiring their style of play. Each of their eleven players were a treat to watch.

But today, its a totally different story. Australia is no longer the dominant team and judging for their recent performance they ll keep slipping down. Aussie fans will contend they can beat anyone at home, but at their current state i believe they ll struggle against England, South Africa at home, and definitely lose away. The team lacks a backbone, lacks fighting spirit, lacks world class spinners, world class batsmen. They may have quality pacers, but most of them too raw to make a difference away from home. If things keep going this way, Australia will continue to slump. No i am not being dramatic, and not being influenced by the India tour. This team is not even near the shadow of the great Australian team of the late 90's and early 2000's. The way India, England, South Africa are developing the Aussies will have a hard time. The last world cup with a decent team they went out in a timid fashion with a reasonably good team. What will happen in the next world cup with this team?

Who is to blame for this debacle? What has brought them down to this level, and how can they fight back to the top? Whats your opinion?

[Gowza]

i reckon they still have the ability to win anywhere they just don't apply themselves like the players in the great team. the talent at the top is there (other than the spin department), the application is not. most of the team haven't played away in foreign conditions very much so tours like the current one in india are a huge learning curve. clarke is obviously quality, warner and wade have as much talent as anyone, khawaja has a lot of talent as does hughes (despite being unorthodox).

the thing is, although the talent is there is hasn't developed like previous generations because the depth of talent is lacking, at the top there is a lot of talent but overall i think the batting and spin talent is lacking a bit. at the same time the pace talent is ridiculous atm, guys like cutting, butterworth and faulkner don't even get a look in for the test side and barely do for the one-day side.

as far as india, england and south africa and their development. well england always have a solid output of talent in pretty much all departments, south africa always have great talent output in everything other than spin and india are starting to develop som decent quicks. i think england and south africa, due to home conditions have a great chance away from home no matter where and no matter who they play, india however are still going to struggle away from home a lot of the time until the new incoming batsmen get some experience outside of home.

why has australia dropped so far? well from my POV a big part why australia was so great before was because there was so much competition for spots, nowadays the talents don't have to perform to keep their spots, be in the aussie team or the state team. there are guys like reardon who have played for probably close to a decade in states and are around 30 who are still struggling to average 30+ in any format. back when australia dominated you had the guys in the team plus rogers, hussey's, jacques, hodge, watson (when he was batting well), katich, lehmann, bevan, clarke, love, maher. there was a big list of batsman performing at about a 50 average in FC cricket who weren't making the team.

[jeesh]

Nicely put Gowza. I used to like Australia's rigid selection strategy. But sometimes they overdo it. Look how beautifully India has replaced Dravid, Tendulkar, Laxman, Ganguly with a new set of stars. When you know there will be a vacuum once senior players retire you immedeatly try to integrate a few talented young players into the system. By now guys like Henriques, Philip Hughes, Marsh, Steven Smith, Ferguson, Khwaja etc should have been established players. The way they play they seem like newcomers. And i dont get their approach with Nathan Lyon. He's their best spinner, why not give him exposure in ODI's, T20's. They are just being too stubborn, almost forcing him to be a test bowler, when they are suffering so much without quality spinners in limited overs.

[Zeeshan]

Aussies rotate more than tires in a F1 pit stop.

[Jadukor]

I blame three factors:
i) The greatness of the Australian team through the late nineties and early 2000s
ii) Selection blunders
iii) Failure of Academy

i) The Australians once had an all conquering team that sometimes looked invincible during the late 90s and early 2000s (like how they won worldcups without losing a single game). The batting and bowling order consisted of such greats at the time that their replacements got zero opportunities to gain experience at the international level. The vacuum left by them when they all left in a very short time period was simply far too great for their inexperienced reserve players to fill in.

ii) The ideal way for the selectors to deal with the situation would have been to have these greats retire phase by phase. There needed to be enough time to find replacement of Langer while Hayden was still there blood in another wicketkeeper while Gilchrist was still there (by giving up gloves and only batting), debuting XYZ spinners while Warne was still there. I think Australian selectors were too complacent with the way they got rid of their star players to and continue to be even at present times (as evident from kicking out Hussey, Katich, not selecting Hodge, D. Hussey etc). Back in the day they didn't need Maher or Stuart Law because of the great 11 they already had. They could get rid of Bevan, Mark Waugh and Steve Waugh unceremoniously (i remember Waugh wanting to play WC but was denied).

iii) Their academies haven't produced a single quality leg spinner during the time Warne played. Warne had a very long international career and there should have been plans in place decades ago to develop young leg spinners like Warne and S. Mcgill. I know that talent cannot be manufactured but still 10+ years is a long time to not find a decent spin bowling option

[Gowza]

Originally Posted by Jadukor
I blame three factors:
i) The greatness of the Australian team through the late nineties and early 2000s
ii) Selection blunders
iii) Failure of Academy

i) The Australians once had an all conquering team that sometimes looked invincible during the late 90s and early 2000s (like how they won worldcups without losing a single game). The batting and bowling order consisted of such greats at the time that their replacements got zero opportunities to gain experience at the international level. The vacuum left by them when they all left in a very short time period was simply far too great for their inexperienced reserve players to fill in.

ii) The ideal way for the selectors to deal with the situation would have been to have these greats retire phase by phase. There needed to be enough time to find replacement of Langer while Hayden was still there blood in another wicketkeeper while Gilchrist was still there (by giving up gloves and only batting), debuting XYZ spinners while Warne was still there. I think Australian selectors were too complacent with the way they got rid of their star players to and continue to be even at present times (as evident from kicking out Hussey, Katich, not selecting Hodge, D. Hussey etc). Back in the day they didn't need Maher or Stuart Law because of the great 11 they already had. They could get rid of Bevan, Mark Waugh and Steve Waugh unceremoniously (i remember Waugh wanting to play WC but was denied).

iii) Their academies haven't produced a single quality leg spinner during the time Warne played. Warne had a very long international career and there should have been plans in place decades ago to develop young leg spinners like Warne and S. Mcgill. I know that talent cannot be manufactured but still 10+ years is a long time to not find a decent spin bowling option

agree, although i think they tried to blood jacques while hayden was there, but he got injured and was out for ages and didn't comeback the same.

[jeesh]

Shocking how they cant produce a single spinner. And they are supposed to have the best coaches, best academies? They might as well give PR to Mosharraf Hossain or Enamul Haque Jnr. They ll do a better job than their current crop.

Just compare Englands spinners with Australia's. English spinners played a key role in their series win just a few months back.

[firstlane]

Here is a good analysis of Australia's reason to lose:


But there are reasons. And there is hope.

Hope? What? Yes, there is hope. For despite being annihilated in two Tests by India, who were beaten 2-1 by England - and this before ten straight Ashes Tests - all is not lost. That's why they call it audacious, hope.

Paul Marsh, CEO of the Australian Players' Association, acknowledges the severity of two drubbings but he does make the point that no Australia team - apart from the ridiculously great side of 2004 - has won in India since 1968. And the pitches in India don't really compare to those the Ashes will be contested on.

There's also the question of how to replace Ricky Ponting and Mike Hussey. Marsh counsels against the "hysteria" that comes with Australia not doing well and reckons the current group should be invested in.

"The keeper's batting at No. 6, there are bowling allrounders at No. 7 and No. 8. Then nine, ten, Jack. Good night, nurse. Remember six batters, keeper and four bowlers? That used to work, didn't it?"
The man can make a case, but it's the manner of these losses, the capitulations. The lack of … well, you wouldn't say an Australian team lacks grit. You don't come up through first-class cricket without bark.

But my - it's been ordinary.

Let's start with selections. I mean, I like Moises Henriques. But Moises Henriques? He played a couple of fine hands in the first Test, and took a couple of wickets. But he's scored one (1) first-class century. He's taken 79 first-class scalps at 28, which is okay. But how has it earned him the trip?

They call Glenn Maxwell "Big Show" and that's a cracking nickname. And he took four wickets when the deck was turning on the third day at Hyderabad. And good luck to him. But Maxwell a Test player? A slow-bowling allrounder batting at No. 8? This is Australia's other spinner? I hope he proves me wrong. But his apprenticeship has been short-form giggle cricket, not years of hard-boned sunstroke and slog.

Nathan Lyon has looked one-dimensional the last few months. And he took some tap from MS Dhoni. But everyone did. Now, fair enough you might replace him. But with Xavier Doherty? He has six wickets at 72, including three in Hyderabad. He was picked for this series on the back of two (2) Shield wickets at 80. He's 30-years-old. He's a good fellah, X-Man. But if he was gonna he'd have dunna.

And they took over Steven Smith. Where to start … I mean … why? For the love of dear sweet Mr Lillee why? Steven Smith? In the Test squad? You may want to give someone experience on Indian wickets but don't hand out Test caps to learn if they can cut it.

I don't get it. The keeper's batting at No. 6. There are bowling allrounders at No. 7 and No. 8. Then nine, ten, Jack. Good night, nurse. Remember six batters, keeper and four bowlers? That used to work, didn't it?

Read more:
http://www.espncricinfo.com/blogs/co...ry/623990.html

[Murad]

Where is Nathan Hauritz ? how come he is not playing for Australia anymore?

He was a decent spinner.

[Maysun]

Originally Posted by Murad
Where is Nathan Hauritz ? how come he is not playing for Australia anymore?

He was a decent spinner.

Into oblivion.

[BengaliPagol]

Every single pace bowler in the Sheffield Shield played for Australia this year

[cricman]

Lyon gets to much flack, he's a good spinner. No shame not being able to get Indian Batsmen out in India.

Their Pace Bowlers are good too.

It's the batsmen that are the problem, It's Clarke and 6 bums.

[Night_wolf]

its sad to see that the land of shane warne can produce a single decent spinner..Aus was really unlucky that macgill and warne was around at the same time..if macgill was here at this time Aus would have highly benefited from that..and poor poor stuart macgill he would have been one of the greats of the game if he was with the present team

[jeesh]

Lyons a good bowler, they are just not managing him well.

[Gowza]

Originally Posted by Night_wolf
its sad to see that the land of shane warne can produce a single decent spinner..Aus was really unlucky that macgill and warne was around at the same time..if macgill was here at this time Aus would have highly benefited from that..and poor poor stuart macgill he would have been one of the greats of the game if he was with the present team

i consider him a great anyway, the poor bloke was around during the time of warne so couldn't get a regular gig but when he did he made it count. the sad story of macgill is he obviously wanted it soo badly that he tried to keep playing after warne retired so he could get a bit more recognition but unfortunately due to age his body couldn't handle it. he might only average 29 in tests but he had a strike rate of 54, his performance suffered due to his last 1-2 years in test cricket being hampered by his deteriorating body. take out his last 4 test matches (which is his last 1.5 years of test cricket) and he struck every 51.5 balls averaging 27.2.

[Tiger444]

They're going through a transition period. I'm sure Australia will come good once again. Australia has usually had trouble in India but who doesn't? Also take in to account that this is such a young team still. I'm sure the likes of Warner, Hughes, Maxwell, and Khawaja will come good if given time. Just have to be patient with these guys.

Also Jeesh bhai, take this young Indian team to England, South Africa, and Australia and I'm sure they too will get manhandled. Even the likes of Dravid and VVS were there and they had no chance. Performing against Australia is always a good thing but like I said, throw them in Australian conditions and they'd fail as badly or more. These 2 teams are going through a transitional phase which is why they're both behind England and South Africa. I'm sure once Australia and India's young players become more seasoned, they'll be able to fit better.

[jeesh]

Dismal performance by Australia. We should have been given their spot, we would have put up a better fight.

[Gowza]

oz suck atm, got some good pacers, but otherwise not much else. this ashton agar kid might turn out a decent prospect but we don't have much talent coming through in the spin and batting departments imo.

[BengaliPagol]

The spinner Fawad Ahmed looks like he will be in the Ashes Squad. The balance in the team is just not there. If they can get it together then they might have a decent showing in the Champions Trophy and also in the Ashes Tour.

[BengaliPagol]

Dave Warner needs to get dropped from ODIs. Clarkey needs to bat at #3.

One of the positives has been George Bailey's consistency.

[jeesh]

Could it be anything to do with the coach? Maybe a more firm coach can make a difference? Darren Lehmann's been touted as a future coach-very shrewd tactician, man manager, motivator. Perhaps time for Australia to consider Mickey Arthurs future.

[BengaliPagol]

Originally Posted by jeesh
Could it be anything to do with the coach? Maybe a more firm coach can make a difference? Darren Lehmann's been touted as a future coach-very shrewd tactician, man manager, motivator. Perhaps time for Australia to consider Mickey Arthurs future.

It's John Inverarity's fault that Australia have spiralled into a huge decline. Selection has been horrendous such as picking Glenn Maxwell the so called "Big Show". He has been the "No Show" for quite some time now.

Constantly neglecting Khawaja has been another feature. He deserved to have a go in India when Hughes was performing poorly but Inverarity had other ideas. Australia do not know their best XI because of the bowling rotation process.

It has been very ugly for a while now.

[Gowza]

on a positive note i think faulkner is a very very good find, he's got a lot of potential with the ball and can be more than handy with the bat.

[Tigers_eye]

Greg Chapel and the coach.

[jeesh]

Originally Posted by Gowza
on a positive note i think faulkner is a very very good find, he's got a lot of potential with the ball and can be more than handy with the bat.

Indeed good bowling all rounder.