Is Hauritz the answer to Australia’s spin woes?
Columnist
By Brett McKay, 14 Jul 2009 Brett McKay is a Roar Expert
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- Australian Cricket, Cricket, english cricket, Nathan Hauritz, The Ashes
Australia's Nathan Hauritz appeals unsuccessfully for the wicket of England's Paul Collingwood during the final day of the first cricket test match between England and Australia in Cardiff, Wales, Sunday, July 12, 2009. AP Photo/Tom Hevezi
Less than twelve months ago, one of the first articles I wrote for The Roar was Where For Art Thou, Australian Spinner?, a quick look through the Australian spin bowling options for the first domestic season without Warne, MacGill or Hogg.
With Nathan Hauritz currently over in England as the sole specialist spinner in the Australian squad contesting the Ashes, I thought it would be appropriate to devote my debut as a columnist for The Roar to re-examining this topic of spinning depth within Australian cricket.
Specifically, in the case of Hauritz, it’s whether he is to be or not to be the Australian spinner going forward?
That is the question, and after his early tour form, including some success in the First Test at Cardiff, I’m sure I’m not alone pondering the answer.
The motivation behind that article last September was the sudden rise and rapid fall of New South Wales’ Beau Casson, the left-arm “chinaman” bowler who earned Test selection in the Caribbean in April 2008 after a breakthrough domestic season.
Despite enjoying some success with ball and bat, Casson never received the expected follow-up selection for the tour to India last October.
Casson then suffered injury, indifferent form and a massive loss of confidence during the 2008/09 season, and lost his spot for NSW. Having now lost his Cricket Australia contract after just one year, it’s hard to see him wearing his Baggy Green again anytime soon.
Casson’s debut and subsequent dumping triggered the proverbial revolving door for the Australian spinner’s role, with Cameron White, Jason Krejza, no-one, Hauritz, Krejza again, Hauritz again, Marcus North, and Bryce McGain playing the part in Tests since.
Hauritz has the role again now, and being the only specialist in the squad to England, you’d expect only a Perth-like pitch along the way (and, I guess, ordinary form) would stop him playing out the Ashes series.
Further, with White the only other spinner with a CA contract for 2009/10, Hauritz really has been granted the best chance to cement the spot.
Now, the Australian selectors are paid to select, and I’m not, so presumably they are better placed than I am to explain the spin-blowing merry-go-round of the last twelve months or so.
If they are now saying that Nathan Hauritz is THE Australian spinner for the immediate future, then let’s see them support this stance. Stop the endless speculation and uncertainty as to whether he’ll make the Test XI, and instead back him as the man to do the job.
Don’t go as far as saying “Nathan has our full support”, because that’s a career-ending comment. Just remove the uncertainty.
Once that’s done, Hauritz needs to be given every chance to succeed within the team, and that includes proper attacking plans and field placements to suit.
If he bowls a couple of bad balls early in the spell, don’t just drop four men straight back on the boundary. Give him a little time to adjust his lines and get back into his groove. And don’t just force him to bowl containing lines with a “ring” field either.
That’s unimaginative thinking, and it’s boring cricket to boot.
On the whole, Hauritz out-bowled both of his more-fancied English opponents in Cardiff.
In particular, I believe Hauritz should have been given more credit for his first innings wickets. He exploited Kevin Pietersen’s premeditation perfectly, yet the only public rap seemed to be from Pietersen himself, even if that was more to do with deflecting criticism from his unbelievably bad shot selection.
Likewise, Hauritz’s change of pace and targeting the rough brought Monty Panesar undone completely, but this was also quickly overlooked because Monty’s not the most comfortable with a bat in his hand.
Let me state that I’m not the biggest fan of Hauritz around the place, but at the same time I do think he’s better than popular opinion suggests.
I will say though that if indeed he is the guy that spin-bowling hopes and plans have been pinned on, then I’m prepared to give him the support and time he needs.
In my mind, however, this time and support needs to be coming from selectors in the first instance, and then the team themselves.
You can’t take one specialist spinner on a three-month tour, speculate for the first two weeks whether he’ll play, and then expect him to bowl with the confidence of a 700 Test wicket phenomenon when the team is only finalised on the morning of the Test.
Is a “Nathan’s playing, and for the next couple of Tests, and he’ll do a great job for us” too much to ask for, a couple of days out?
While ever this uncertainty remains, and unless Hauritz gets the required time and support from the top, then the musical chairs can only continue, and surely that would be in no-one’s best interests (apart from perhaps Australia’s opposition).
We shall see. Based on selection history over the last twelve months, however, I won’t be surprised if I broach this subject again in future columns.
Follow Brett McKay on Twitter: @BMcSport
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sheek said | July 14th 2009 @ 11:04am | Report comment
Brett,
Congrats on the gig!
For me, the halycon days of modern Australian cricket, both internationally & domestically, were the 70s. Let’s look circa 1975, & every state could provide a balanced team of 5-7 batsmen, a keeper-batsman, 2-4 pacemen, & hello, hello, a minimum two spinners, often of varying types.
This might have been the era of the furious pace of Lillee & Thomson, or Hogg & Hurst, but we could also count on quality spin when necessary.
Queensland had the Sri Lankan born leggie Mal Francke & the offie Graham Whyte. NSW had allrounders Kerry O’Keeffe & Mick Hill (leggie & offie respectively), plus the bewitching chinaman bolwer David Hourn. Victoria had orthodox leftarmer Ray Bright & leggie Jim Higgs.
South Australia had the two test men, offie Ashley Mallett & leggie Terry Jenner. Western Australia weren’t out of the picture either. They had ex-Qld leggie Bob Paulsen, allrounder leggie Tony Mann, just turned offie Bruce Yardley, while skipper John Inverarity was a useful offie also.
So there you have it, plenty of leggies & offies, with the odd leftarmer & chinaman thrown in. As the Windies found, & perhaps Australia will also in the near future, it does you no good to abandon any particular facet of the game. Cricket needs its spinners as much as it needs its pacemen, great batsmen & keeper-batsmen.
Hauritz is the best spinner we have at the moment, who can also contribute with the bat occasionally, & in the field. I say – more power to him!
Alan Nicolea said | July 14th 2009 @ 11:18am | Report comment
Brett
What sports will you be covering mate? You are now an expert writer and judging from this article, you will be a good one at that. Congratulations.
Rickety Knees said | July 14th 2009 @ 11:53am | Report comment
Great article Brett – ditto Alan’s comment. I agree that it is time to stop this revolving door and the shameful treatment that has been meted out to the spinners of this land. I am not a fan of Ponting’s captaincy, especially his limited tactical nous and lack of knowledge of the finer points of employing spin bowling. He is fixated with one day thinking and plays the game accordingly.
I wish that Ponting would better use Simon Katich who took 5 wickets @ 10.80 against the Saffers and has a 5 for in Test Cricket.
I don’t believe much will change on the utilisation of spin as long as Ponting is captain.
Dave said | July 14th 2009 @ 12:12pm | Report comment
There must be some reason for Katich not bowing,. I have no idea what it is though.
Brett McKay said | July 14th 2009 @ 12:19pm | Report comment
thanks for the kind words guys, I don’t think I’ve ever been as nervous about a piece appearing on The Roar as I was this morning. The move from the blue to red column was quite unexpected in the timeframe it’s happened, so there was healthy anxiety when I opened up for the first time this morning. It’s still a spin-out to see my name and pic under a heading containing the word ‘expert’!!
Alan, I can tell you what I won’t be covering, and that’s classic literature. With “where for art thou” and “to be or not to be” I’ve reached the limit of knowledge in Shakespere already!!
Onto the topic at hand, the spinning ranks around the country seem to be getting worse every season, and it seems that if you’re a young spinner in WA or Qld, then you need to consider a move to a south-eastern state. The race amongst the new brigade to replace Warne and MacGill has been that hectic, that several (Cullen, Casson, McGain) have been wahed away in the carnage. Even around the states there looks to be uncertainty about who is the No.1 tweaker.
It doesn’t get any more farcical than Greg Matthews, former Test player and current SBS “analyst”, who at the rip old age of 48 is still playing 1s for Sydney Uni and still, STILL, considers himself the best spinner in New South Wales!!
Fortunately, there are several young tweakers among the rookie ranks in several states, so while the depth looks to be there, Australia has to make sure they’re brought through the ranks carefully and not just dropped in the deep end. And stop this revolving door business in the Test team!!
On Hauritz, he has to the play out the Ashes series now, simply has to. He and Hilfenhaus were the pick of the Aussie bowlers not just on Day 5, but across the five days. I was glad to hear him talking about feeling happy in the side and the way Ponting is backing him, and my whole point in this column (still getting used to that) is that this support has to continue, and be universal…
Sportsmouth said | July 14th 2009 @ 1:12pm | Report comment
Congrats Brett,
Hope you can provide us with lots of interesting water cooler type articles.
If you remember Hauritz was touted as our next big thing a few years back, he was thrown to the wolves in India and didn’t take a bag full and then to the scrap heap! It’s a credit to him that he has stuck in there and given himself the chance.
I guess the biggest problem is that every spinner will be compared to Warne and expected to take bags of wickets, but to expect a finger spinner (Murali aside) to run through a test team, well I think they’re dreaming, but the comparison will continue with Warne until we have a change of captaincy, as Ponting had the Warne factor early on in his captaincy he would feel that a spinner should be an out and out match winner. Maybe the ability he showed us in Cardiff will help Pontings captaincy and mind set with spinners.
Jameswm said | July 14th 2009 @ 1:19pm | Report comment
That’s exactly what I thought Brett – moving from blue to red!
Hauritz is workmanlike but I can’t see how he’s the answer. Krejza is the one and they just have to persist with him. What sort of specialist coaching does he get? He does bowl the odd loose one but he gets such energy on the ball.
We’ll have to wait till they get back to Australia to compare them.
One thing I will say is that North’s bowling was disappointing. I thought he was a good part-time finger spinner. Clarke looks better.
Who Needs Melon said | July 14th 2009 @ 1:51pm | Report comment
I’ve said this before but I’ll say it again: When Warne erupted onto the world stage in the early 90s I thought it would herald a new era of spin in Australian cricket. Spin with a ball that is. Not the marketing kind of spin. Later you saw him and others explaining techniques on the telly and didn’t he market balls you could practice with, etc.
It wasn’t just my imagination that there were hordes of little teenage boys pretending to be Shane Warne in the nets, was it? What happened to them all? Did they all take the emulation too far? What happened?!?
I assume Terry Jenner is still in the coaching picture in Australia. Are Warne and McGill doing any form of coaching? To what extent is being a good spinner a function of coaching?
Brett McKay said | July 14th 2009 @ 1:58pm | Report comment
cheers Sportsmouth, earlier this morning I was just hoping to get a single comment, never mind water cooler conversation!!
Jameswm, have you made the move too – am I going to slap my forehead when I work out who you are??
Sports, in the article from last year that I referenced in this piece, I made a simliar comment about comparisons to Warne, and said something along the lines of Warnie being the worst thing to happen for young spinners, becuase now they’re all expected to be able to turn a ball square while concedeing only 2-3 runs per over. And captains need to learn how to use spinners properly too, in terms of timing, field placements, etc. I was guility of this too; these days a soon as the young gun spinner gets hit for a boundary, or starts going for a few runs, four or five blokes get dispatched to the boundary. Attacking fields get dropped way too easily – even for mis-hits or Pietersen-style premeditations – rather than trying to keep working on a batsman’s deficiencies.
James, I think Krejza is very talented, in fact in the article last year I labelled him as a smokey for the one-day team with his batting ability (101no for Aust A last week v Pak A). I don’t think we’ve seen the last of him by any stretch, but it’s hard to see him back in the forseeable future unless Hauritz suffers injury or form slump. Being an offie too, we’ll never see Hauritz and Krezja in the same team (maybe not ‘never’, but not-very-bloody-likely).
So for now, let’s make Hauritz a winner…
OldManEmu said | July 14th 2009 @ 2:23pm | Report comment
Nice Brett.
I think whatever happens the Aussie selectors need to make a decision as to who is their front line spinner and stick with them.
For me it is Hauritz. He has good control and flight and when the pitch is taking spin he is dangerous.
In my ideal world I would select Krezja and Hauritz in tandem. Krezja gives it a big rip and while he can leak runs, having Hauritz at the other end would be the perfect foil. Wont happen moind you but gee it would be nice.
Johnson is virtually an all rounder these days so he can bat at 7, bat Haddin at 6, North at 5 drop Hussey – pretty attacking team – 0ne thing is for certain – there would not be many draws.