Cool in the hot seat

In the past year Andrew Hilditch went from being an occasional shadow in the background at Australian training to a derided chairman of selectors who was responsible for the team falling apart. Not since Trevor Hohns sacked Steve Waugh from the one-day team in 2002 had the country's cricket kingmaker turned into such a target for the masses.

Hilditch was photographed walking his dog when Matthew Hayden was failing to save his career at the SCG in the first week of January, in the last Test of Australia's first home series loss for 16 years. As the criticism peaked and the results bottomed, Hilditch did not consider stepping down from the role he has held since 2006.

"You don't know me very well," he said. "I like to win everything and I'm as competitive as everyone else, but I'm a realist. So when things aren't going so well, as a selection panel, we have to stick to what we're doing. I'm expecting more ups and downs. If people aren't expecting ups and downs in a developing side, that's unrealistic."

Hilditch, 53, is not as accessible as Hohns was during his long term; he doesn't divulge information on upcoming teams and won't discuss the first-Test squad during an 18-minute interview below the team dressing room. He arrived in England this week and has already been under attack from an Australian newspaper for not attending the opening tour game.

"I'm not sure about copping it along the way, I don't read any of the press," Hilditch said of the past year. "It's not relevant to what the selection panel is doing. Our biggest concern, and what I'm trying to achieve, is to get Australia through a transition period and emerge in two to three years' time, hopefully, at or near the top of world cricket still.

"In general terms, it's been a great year as far as findings are concerned. It was never going to be easy, it would be ridiculous to say otherwise. We've lost so many great players, two or three who win games by themselves."

Since the 2008 India tour, Hilditch and his panel have made some bad mistakes, particularly around spin bowling, and not recognising Hayden's decline and Brett Lee's struggles towards the end of the year. Hilditch is now overseeing an unbalanced Ashes squad, which carries one specialist slow bowler, Nathan Hauritz, who has done nothing to threaten England, and a bits-and-pieces allrounder in Andrew McDonald. The thigh injury to Shane Watson, the reserve batsman, also upsets the team's plans in the lead-up to Wednesday's first Test in Cardiff.

One of the major criticisms of Hilditch and his panel, which includes David Boon, Merv Hughes and Jamie Cox, is that they don't take risks. Hilditch, Boon and Cox were cautious opening batsmen and Hughes is best known as a larrikin fast bowler with a wet tongue. With Hayden, the panel waited for him to retire rather than pushing him, and they were slow to act on Lee and Andrew Symonds when they were held back by form, fitness and personal issues.

"What I'm trying to achieve, is to get Australia through a transition period and emerge in two to three years' time, hopefully, at or near the top of world cricket still"

Hilditch dismissed the accusations and said the panel had "broken down barriers" by giving more young players opportunities. "As far as selections go, I don't think we've been conservative, to be frank," he said. "As far as what we are trying to achieve, bringing young players on, some of the stuff we've done includes bringing people from nearly grade cricket into Australia A. We are very concerned about the future, that's where we're trying to hit."

Whenever Hilditch's selection judgments are questioned, his lack of focus is raised. He juggles the cricket duties with his partnership in the Adelaide-based law firm Griffin Hilditch. Throughout his state and national playing career he was always studying or working full-time and has no plans to alter his load.

Cricket Australia has completed a review of its player pathway, from state to international level, and one of the proposals was a full-time chairman of selectors. Hilditch's role is considered part-time and his annual retainer is around A$100,000.

He made submissions to the report and supports all the recommendations, but insisted he hadn't thought about whether he could do the job if it became officially permanent. "As chairman of selectors, I'm just really passionate about what I do," he said. "That's a really lucky position to be in.

"I don't feel terribly stressed and I feel extremely fortunate to be contributing to Australian cricket. I've done most of my time voluntarily and I enjoyed that process. If it continues that's great, because I'm very fortunate, but I'll see what happens."

However, he is certain that if any of the selectors are given a heavier load it will not mean they attend every tour match. "Unfortunately there's some perception at the moment that I should have been at the first county game [against Sussex], but that's got nothing to do with whether I'm a full-time chairman," he said. "If there's a full-time selector he's not going to be at every game.

"We've got a captain, a coaching staff, a bowling staff. It's also, to be fair, pretty naïve to think that way. In a modern society we work on vision as much as anything else. I reviewed all the footage from the first game as soon as I arrived here. We all do that constantly. We're not going to make selections on what I see here [against the England Lions]."

He feels his law partners - he specialises in insurance claims and writes for industry publications - should have more of a problem with the time he devotes to his work than those at the cricket. "I've had a lifetime of combining both those things together," he said. "Whether it's a good or a bad thing, it makes me tick. I find as much time as I need."

While he disputes the views of him as a conservative selector and lawyer, he rates his 18-Test career harder than any critic of his current role. "I was extremely fortunate to play for Australia," he said. "There are lots more players more talented than me who haven't done that. As far as everything else, I'm probably going to be stuck with that."

He was vice-captain on the 1985 trip to England, which Australia lost 1-3, but after scoring 119 and 80 in the first Test in Leeds he was out of the team by the end of the year. "I just really enjoyed the tour and I played some pretty poor cricket," he said. "And let Australia down. I remember that part of it."

The first half of the 1980s was unhappy for the country's cricket, with rebel tours, mass retirements and a distinct lack of direction from the selectors. Hilditch is much friendlier with his players than the decision-makers three decades ago, opening himself up to more criticism.

"It's an extremely close relationship," he said. "Certainly a relationship nothing like what I would have enjoyed in my playing time. Things have changed for the better. We're unbelievably close to the players, which makes the process a bit more difficult. People might say we are too close, but I actually like it. We have a good understanding of the personalities of all players, which is a really important part of selection which nobody else is ever going to know."