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Chilla Wilson (44)
The Aus cricket summer has finally ended and in the 2 hours left before the Aussies fly out to South Africa I thought I would quickly recap on what we have seen. In many ways it has been a terrific summer of cricket, there has been lots of skilful batting, bowling and fielding and close finishes. Unfortunately for us most of the skill was shown by the South Africans. So what went wrong for us?
Poor Selection - Aus cricket is now paying the price for its selection policies over the last 4-5 years of picking 30year debutants. It served as well in the short term in replacing the retirements of Langer, Gilchrist, Martin, McGrath, Warne, Hogg and co but there was always going to be a price to be paid. Suddenly our cupboard was bare when 3-4 players got physically or mentally injured (Jacques, Clark, Lee, Watson and Symonds) and another few senior players (Hayden and Hussey) lost form. The Aus cricket side was exposed as the old-boys club it had become and the selectors learned the hard way that their job extended beyond sampling beer in cricket venues around the world. Let?s hope they have learned a lesson, as the Aus team has a lot more regeneration to come in the next 3 years with the looming retirements of Ponting, Katich, Hussey and Haddin.
Poor Coaching - Still, our skills have been poor in all facets of the game and someone needs to have a good long hard look at the coaching staff. It seems more than a coincidence that our run of poor form coincided with Buchanan stepping down as Aus coach Neilson taking over. The old saying that catches win matches still holds true and our fielding (including wicket keeping) has been poor (with the obvious exception of Voges catch last night!). Our bowlers have bowled inconsistently, lacked concentration and haven?t bowled as an attack or bowled to their fields. The same can be said for our batting and we are relying on individuals saving our bacon rather than accumulating big team scores.
Poor Leadership ? A broader point compared to poor coaching as it?s necessary to include Ponting (as Captain) and the other senior players (Hayden, Hussey, Clarke and co). We have been out thought by both the Saffas and Kiwis this summer and have looked clueless at times. There are a lot of what ifs from this summer. What if we had of used our batting power plays more wisely? What if we had of taken Paul Harris and John Botha more seriously as a spinner? What if Clarke didn?t get out on the last ball of the day at the Waca? What if we had of been able to find a way to break the Duminy-Steyn partnership at the MCG?
Lack of a Spinner ? There hasn?t been a single game this summer where I haven?t wished for a quality spinner, neither Haurtiz or Kreja are the answer. If managed carefully, we might be able to get 2 years from McGain but we are still essentially in the same position as when Warne retired. No magic answers here and we need to trust the domestic cricket system to produce the player(s) needed.
Poor Scheduling ? this is a bit of a cop out I know, but nevertheless, who ever agreed to back to back series against the Indian?s away, NZ & Saffas at home followed by the Saffas again away needs to be shot. We would have struggled with this workload when at our peak and it is serving to help accelerate our decline at the moment. The bad news is that 2009 looks just as bad scheduling wise.
The good news for us is that there some of the youngsters who stepped up have shown some promise. Shaun Marsh, Calum Ferguson and Siddle have all shown enough to warrant optimism. Even Mitch Johnson really only broke through as a bowler this year and its unfortunate that his spell in Perth didn?t turn out to be match winning. Then we have players like Hughes to come in,the prospect of seeing Hilfenhaus bowl in the long form of the game and Katich refinding his form. This cricketing recession need not be long and deep.
Moving onto the key plays of the summer:
1) Prince breaking his finger in the Waca nets prior to the first test. Without this we may not have seen much of Duminy and he was the clear international cricketer of the year (if they still gave out that award). Duminy played 5 or 6 great innings and never gave his wicket away cheaply. He also took the catch of the summer in the 20:20 game in brisbane. My mates and I made a big point of criticising his throwing during the Sydney test as it was the only part of his game where he didn?t excel. Next in line were G Smith, Steyn, Botha and Morkel. All South Africans reflecting their dominance of games played on Aus grounds. It?s hard to pick the best for Aus, Ponting and Clarke were probably tied but both would think they had average summers at best. Vetorri gets the gong for the kiwis ahead of Ross Taylor.
2) Smith?s 100 2nd innings of the first test. The Saffas are chasing a record score to win (albeit on a good Waca pitch) and Aus need early inroads. Smith overcomes his poor record in Aus and bats the Saffas into an almost unloseable position.
3) Haddin?s breakthrough 100s. Both came against NZ at relatively important stages in the matches. Hopefully it will allow him to make big contributions with the bat in all forms of the game over the next few years. Needs to work on his glove work though or otherwise he will need to be scoring lots of runs to justify his place in the team.
4) Hayden?s dropped catch ? last day of the SCG test. While not ultimately changing the outcome, it provided the final evidence that the big man was past his prime and it was time.
5) Albie Morkels innings in Melbourne. I had declared this game as won and had stopped paying attention. Suddenly Morkel goes nuts and it?s a good victory for the Saffas. He repeated the dose in Sydney (after Aus kindly dropped him early on), both were very telling innings in terms of the brutal hitting from Morkel and the ability of the Saffas to opimise their power plays. I don?t think that SA would have won either game without him.
I haven?t mentioned the kiwis much in the above. Overall, I feel they should be a little disappointed with their performances here. Yes they were the moral victors in the C-H series, but they made bloody hard work of it and came close to snatching defeat from the jaws of victory in both of the games they won. They didn?t seem mentally prepared to beat Aus and let us back into the game at critical moments in the tests, ODI and 20:20. Jacob Oram would have been a huge boost to this team but I feel they need a harder edge to consistently win away from home as the talent is there or thereabouts.
Poor Selection - Aus cricket is now paying the price for its selection policies over the last 4-5 years of picking 30year debutants. It served as well in the short term in replacing the retirements of Langer, Gilchrist, Martin, McGrath, Warne, Hogg and co but there was always going to be a price to be paid. Suddenly our cupboard was bare when 3-4 players got physically or mentally injured (Jacques, Clark, Lee, Watson and Symonds) and another few senior players (Hayden and Hussey) lost form. The Aus cricket side was exposed as the old-boys club it had become and the selectors learned the hard way that their job extended beyond sampling beer in cricket venues around the world. Let?s hope they have learned a lesson, as the Aus team has a lot more regeneration to come in the next 3 years with the looming retirements of Ponting, Katich, Hussey and Haddin.
Poor Coaching - Still, our skills have been poor in all facets of the game and someone needs to have a good long hard look at the coaching staff. It seems more than a coincidence that our run of poor form coincided with Buchanan stepping down as Aus coach Neilson taking over. The old saying that catches win matches still holds true and our fielding (including wicket keeping) has been poor (with the obvious exception of Voges catch last night!). Our bowlers have bowled inconsistently, lacked concentration and haven?t bowled as an attack or bowled to their fields. The same can be said for our batting and we are relying on individuals saving our bacon rather than accumulating big team scores.
Poor Leadership ? A broader point compared to poor coaching as it?s necessary to include Ponting (as Captain) and the other senior players (Hayden, Hussey, Clarke and co). We have been out thought by both the Saffas and Kiwis this summer and have looked clueless at times. There are a lot of what ifs from this summer. What if we had of used our batting power plays more wisely? What if we had of taken Paul Harris and John Botha more seriously as a spinner? What if Clarke didn?t get out on the last ball of the day at the Waca? What if we had of been able to find a way to break the Duminy-Steyn partnership at the MCG?
Lack of a Spinner ? There hasn?t been a single game this summer where I haven?t wished for a quality spinner, neither Haurtiz or Kreja are the answer. If managed carefully, we might be able to get 2 years from McGain but we are still essentially in the same position as when Warne retired. No magic answers here and we need to trust the domestic cricket system to produce the player(s) needed.
Poor Scheduling ? this is a bit of a cop out I know, but nevertheless, who ever agreed to back to back series against the Indian?s away, NZ & Saffas at home followed by the Saffas again away needs to be shot. We would have struggled with this workload when at our peak and it is serving to help accelerate our decline at the moment. The bad news is that 2009 looks just as bad scheduling wise.
The good news for us is that there some of the youngsters who stepped up have shown some promise. Shaun Marsh, Calum Ferguson and Siddle have all shown enough to warrant optimism. Even Mitch Johnson really only broke through as a bowler this year and its unfortunate that his spell in Perth didn?t turn out to be match winning. Then we have players like Hughes to come in,the prospect of seeing Hilfenhaus bowl in the long form of the game and Katich refinding his form. This cricketing recession need not be long and deep.
Moving onto the key plays of the summer:
1) Prince breaking his finger in the Waca nets prior to the first test. Without this we may not have seen much of Duminy and he was the clear international cricketer of the year (if they still gave out that award). Duminy played 5 or 6 great innings and never gave his wicket away cheaply. He also took the catch of the summer in the 20:20 game in brisbane. My mates and I made a big point of criticising his throwing during the Sydney test as it was the only part of his game where he didn?t excel. Next in line were G Smith, Steyn, Botha and Morkel. All South Africans reflecting their dominance of games played on Aus grounds. It?s hard to pick the best for Aus, Ponting and Clarke were probably tied but both would think they had average summers at best. Vetorri gets the gong for the kiwis ahead of Ross Taylor.
2) Smith?s 100 2nd innings of the first test. The Saffas are chasing a record score to win (albeit on a good Waca pitch) and Aus need early inroads. Smith overcomes his poor record in Aus and bats the Saffas into an almost unloseable position.
3) Haddin?s breakthrough 100s. Both came against NZ at relatively important stages in the matches. Hopefully it will allow him to make big contributions with the bat in all forms of the game over the next few years. Needs to work on his glove work though or otherwise he will need to be scoring lots of runs to justify his place in the team.
4) Hayden?s dropped catch ? last day of the SCG test. While not ultimately changing the outcome, it provided the final evidence that the big man was past his prime and it was time.
5) Albie Morkels innings in Melbourne. I had declared this game as won and had stopped paying attention. Suddenly Morkel goes nuts and it?s a good victory for the Saffas. He repeated the dose in Sydney (after Aus kindly dropped him early on), both were very telling innings in terms of the brutal hitting from Morkel and the ability of the Saffas to opimise their power plays. I don?t think that SA would have won either game without him.
I haven?t mentioned the kiwis much in the above. Overall, I feel they should be a little disappointed with their performances here. Yes they were the moral victors in the C-H series, but they made bloody hard work of it and came close to snatching defeat from the jaws of victory in both of the games they won. They didn?t seem mentally prepared to beat Aus and let us back into the game at critical moments in the tests, ODI and 20:20. Jacob Oram would have been a huge boost to this team but I feel they need a harder edge to consistently win away from home as the talent is there or thereabouts.
