Selectors no longer fishing with dynamite
Alex Brown writes in the Sydney Morning Herald that Australia’s selectors must be held accountable for their decisions.
Brydon Coverdale
25-Feb-2013
Alex Brown writes in the Sydney Morning Herald that Australia’s selectors must be held accountable for their decisions.
With the possible exception of Vatican City missionaries and Peter Sterling's barber, Australian selectors have held down the cushiest posts of the past decade. A superstar line-up, coupled with mediocre international competition, left the panel with little to do but maintain the status quo and watch as the Australian cricket juggernaut vanquished all before them. Fishing with dynamite, you might say.
Those days are gone. Retirements and injuries to key personnel have greatly eroded the Australian team, placing increased focus on selections. And while the selectors were initially praised for the manner in which they drip-fed the likes of Phil Jaques, Brad Haddin, Mitchell Johnson and Beau Casson into the Test side, the same panel must stand accountable for the untried and unbalanced squad it sent to India - one that requires a major reversal of fortune if it is to retain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
In the same paper, Brown speaks to speaks to six coaches of Test nations to find out how they view Australia’s decline. Here’s a sample of what John Dyson, the West Indies coach, has to say.
I think everyone has begun to realise that this current Australian side is human and can be beaten. And that's good for cricket. I remember playing against the West Indies in the mid-1980s, and once the rest of the world realised they were beatable, it ushered in a good period for the game. I think the same is happening here.
Brydon Coverdale is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo. He tweets here