Australia should have picked Warne (14 February 1999)

14 February 1999

Australia should have picked Warne

By Ian Chappell

THE more I saw of Shane Warne's captaincy during the one-day series, the more I was convinced the time was right for him to be appointed full-time Australian leader. The Australian Cricket Board opted for Steve Waugh as captain and in doing so I believe they missed a glorious opportunity to set in train another period of excellent leadership to follow the reign of Mark Taylor.

As with captaincy itself, the time to act on a gut feeling is immediately and if you do not the moment is lost. The ACB have missed the moment and the time will never be as right for Warne again.

In the finals series, Warne's captaincy made the difference in the SCG match which England should have won. At the MCG yesterday, Alec Stewart did not bring Darren Gough back into the attack when the game was in the balance. Instead he allowed the Darren Lehmann-Damien Martyn partnership to flourish by not trying to make something happen - a mistake Warne has not been guilty of making during his tenure.

The ACB chairman said that Steve Waugh was chosen as the next captain because he was the right man for the job. All I can say is he must be a hell of a lot better than Warne when it comes to captaining Test matches because in the head-to-head leadership battle in the one-day series, the bowler was clearly superior.

The way England batted it would not have mattered if Stewart had made all the right moves in the field. There are major worries in that department as they struggle against leg-spin because of inept footwork and they were troubled by Glenn McGrath's pace and bounce and were not able to collar the accurate Adam Dale. It was obvious that the more the Australian bowlers saw of the England batting line-up the less likely they were to make a big score and it became patently clear they were relying heavily on Graeme Hick to post a big total. Before the selectors made a few changes to personnel, Australia were in a similar position with Mark Waugh, but now they have a lot of batsmen contributing.

The Australian selectors are in the fortunate position for the World Cup of having to worry about whom to leave out. Damien Martyn, for example, will probably miss out on the first choice side with Steve Waugh returning and yet he was a consistent contributor. For their part the England selectors must be in a quandary over World Cup personnel as this series has posed more questions than it has solved problems. Apart from the batting worries, England need more variety in bowling and also lack a top-class all-rounder. While the home turf advantage will be put forward as a reason not to make too many changes, I think the problem is more a lack of quality options. I do not think the home turf advantage will apply against better teams like Australia and South Africa.

Australia are now in good shape for the World Cup and the only major problem is one that reared its head under Steve Waugh's captaincy. In two finals, in Sharjah and at the Commonwealth Games, the players got angry as the run of play turned against them and once they lost the plot, they lost the game. That has not happened under Warne's captaincy and in fact they have remained extremely well focused in tight situations and it has helped them win a couple of games that appeared lost. It will be interesting to see if Steve Waugh can eradicate this flaw that has haunted his captaincy.

Ian Harvey, the Victorian all-rounder who has played one-day international cricket for Australia, has been lined up as the new overseas player for Gloucestershire. Harvey, a big hitter and medium-paced bowler, will replace Courtney Walsh, who left the county in controversial circumstances late last year.

Source :: Electronic Telegraph (https://www.telegraph.co.uk)