Where have all the Victorians gone?
Brydon Coverdale
25-Feb-2013
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Victorians have traditionally felt their players get overlooked for national selection to accommodate New South Wales cricketers. Australia’s 15-man Test squad to tour the West Indies features eight New South Wales players and no Victorians, although both teams made the Pura Cup final. In the Herald Sun, Ron Reed reports.
For the first time, Victoria has no cricketer considered good enough to be picked for an overseas Test tour. The Australian selectors, including Victorian Merv Hughes, yesterday ignored the Bushrangers in naming 15 players for the three-Test trip to the West Indies next month. Cricket Australia statistician Ross Dundas said the only other time this had happened was in 2003, when champion spin bowler Shane Warne was serving his year's suspension after failing a drugs test.
Victoria’s main hope for a Test call-up was the legspinner Bryce McGain. In the Age, Peter Hanlon chats to McGain after he missed the cut.
The Test squad, however, is again bereft of Vics, leaving the Bushrangers some way off meeting their mission statement of having 30% representation in national teams by 2011. McGain by then will be pushing 40, but thinks himself more of a chance than now. He knows he is an unusual story, and has enjoyed people's interest, but is aware that he was essentially a first-year player this summer.
Brydon Coverdale is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo. He tweets here