Australia’s top 5 phantom cricketers
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By Andrew Jones, 20 May 2009 Andrew Jones is a Roar Pro
More cricket this week, although slightly less juvenile than last week’s Festival Of Onions. With Cricket Australia’s contract list out last week and the Ashes side to be named today, it struck me that there is now a set of phantom cricketers in Australia: players who appear real to observers of the game, but not necessarily to selectors, and about whom theories (conspiracy and otherwise) abound.
Here’s my Top 5:
1. Phil Jaques (c) – His last Test innings was a ton, but that didn’t help Jason Gillespie or Martin Love! A dodgy back, the consistency of Katich and a prodigy have seen Jaques leave the contract list despite a Test average of 47. Nor has “the Pro” has been considered as a spare batsman, even though batting in the middle order would be a luxury for any seasoned opener, as M.Hussey would testify.
2. Chris Rogers – Jaques Mark II. Has scored a million runs in first-class cricket (well 11,000 at 50), including a double-century against Australia for Leicestershire on the 2005 Ashes tour. Also has the fourth-highest average of any long-term Shield opener ever, behind only Ponsford, Lawry and Hayden (5,000 run qualification). 1195 runs at 75 in the 2008-09 competition plus the domestic one-day player of the year award were still not enough to secure a contract. I’m not sure why.
3. Jason Krejza – I played Scrabble for the first time in years last Friday night (yes, it’s an exciting life), and this man was first picked for the triple word score. However, a potential value of 72 and obvious ability as a bowler have not been enough to endear him to the firm of Hilditch Hughes Cox & Boon. Back to the Tasmanian wilderness! Or is that a tautology?
4. Brad Hodge – Would bat higher except yesterday’s paper reckoned he was a good chance of touring this time around. The natural successor to Siddons and Law, he may never get the chance to improve on his Test average of 55. On the upside, he may never get to ruin it.
5. Adam Voges – as we all know, marriage is supposed to be forever. Which makes Adam Voges’ decision not to postpone his wedding despite being picked for Australia all the more confusing. If you shave a couple of months off eternity, you are still left with eternity. On the other hand if you tell the Aussie selectors you are unavailable for no good reason, you may as hire a plane and write “PLEASE DON’T RENEW MY CONTRACT” in the South African sky. Or am I being unromantic?
Anyone I’ve missed? What about some other phantoms down the ages?
In addition to being a sports nuffy, Andrew Jones is a co-founder of local business ratings website Customer Underground - check it out at customerunderground.com.
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Greg Russell said | May 20th 2009 @ 10:19am | Report comment
Thanks Andrew, very entertaining as usual.
Rather than add someone, I’d like to take one off: Adam Voges. What has he ever done apart from take a match-winning catch in a T20I? (vs NZ at the SCG in February). In contrast to Hodge, Rogers and Jaques, he has a very modest record in first-class cricket, and it has been a mystery to me all along just why he got selected at all. His refusal to shift his wedding has merely had the desired effect of taking him back to where he belongs: the ranks of unrecognized first-class cricketers in Australia.
In short, where one can argue that the other four are discriminated against by the Australian selectors, Voges has been treated with mystifying favoritism. Ben Laughlin is another case of the latter, except that he has only been around for a year. Laughlin also shares with Voges that he took a sensational match-winning catch in a short-form match (5th ODI in South Africa, Albie Morkel), but otherwise he has done nothing at all to justify his unjustified national selection. Thankfully Laughlin is also not on the contract list!
Krejza is in between. In terms of record in Australian domestic cricket he is as modest as Voges, perhaps even worse. But at least he has a sensational test performance to his name. There is a lot of division on this website about which is the real Krejza, the one from Nagpur or the one who averages 50 per wicket in Sheffield Shield. Personally I am a fan of the Trevor Hohns approach to cricket selection, which is that one looks at long-term performance. Thus in Krejza’s case I am very sceptical that Nagpur reflects his ability as a bowler, so I am happy to see him be a “phantom” again. But hey, I can’t deny that his performance in Nagpur was phenomenal, and congratulations to him for that.
Mick of Newie said | May 20th 2009 @ 11:48am | Report comment
Andrew Mcdonald has done well to leverage his position as Australia’s no 4 choice allrounder into a contract. Good luck to him. But it does beg the question who is more likely to play a significant role for Australia in the future. Heaven help us if we are going to persist with McDonald as the 4th seamer and batting at number 8 (or should he bat after Johnson at 9).
Toby said | May 20th 2009 @ 8:58pm | Report comment
The other bloke who might feel a bit short changed is Doug Bollinger, spent virtually the whole year touring with the Aussie team but getting little to no game time & bounced back with a 6 for(if i remember correctly) against Pakistan. In a very swing friendly England if we were to come up one swing bowler short, Dougie could justifiably feel “ripped”