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Roarers, we need to stop the witch hunt against the National Selection Panel and Cricket Australia. Yes, they have made some blunders, but you see, its not all their fault.
Some of the fault lies in the poor form of 80% of the team, but most of the fault lies with a Mister Andrew “Freddie” Flintoff.
All of Australia’s woe is due to the big Englishman.
Why?
Because in 2005, his Herculean feats utterly defeated the once infallible Australians. His abilities with the bat and ball dominated a team with names like Hayden, Langer, Ponting, Gilchrist, McGrath, Warne (and Gillespie and Lee).
He scored more runs than all but Ponting, took and more wickets than all but Warne.
In short, his feats tricked the Australian selection panel that all-rounders are the key to victory, not a good XI.
The Australian team got on fine before an all-rounder. Sure, they lost the Ashes, but Australia was comprehensively outplayed by all of England, not just by Flintoff.
Yet, the selection panel decided to think that if England did not have Flintoff-the-great, then Australia probably would have won 5-0, as Glenn McGrath initially predicted.
So here’s a brief timeline of happened then?
Shane Watson was immediately drafted back into the team for the Supertest against the World XI. He got injured.
Symonds then was drafted in. Flop.
Watson came back, got injured. Flop.
Cameron White. Flop.
Andrew McDonald came in and left. Flop.
Mitchell Johnson put together a few good innings and then it was decided he could be the new allrounder. Flop.
Marcus North was promoted to second spinner duties. His batting suffered and he was dropped. Flop.
Shane Watson came back. For a few days he was performing, then he got injured again. Bowling scaled back. Bring in Steve Smith. Flop.
Watson came back again, then his batting plummeted. He blamed it on his bowling. So they draft in Henriques. Flop
Glenn Maxwell. Flop
Australia for the past eight years have been obsessed with finding an allrounder, without really taking into consideration the level of talent they have in either discipline. It doesn’t matter if they bowl or bat well, so long as they do both…then they’re in!
Flintoff was a walk in on either discipline. Not one of the above could be considered the best six batsmen in the country or the best four bowlers in the country…which is supposed to be the prerequisite of an allrounder.
Australia for eight years have picked a team of 3+8. The captain, the wicketkeeper and the all rounder + the rest.
You don’t need an allrounder. You can win without them. Comfortably. You can’t make an allrounder.
They are not prerequisites to a team. You cannot pick Maxwell simply to have an allrounder in the team.
Including a makeshift allrounder who can do, but not excel, at both disciplines is akin to pick a best 10, and not a best 11. You are disadvantaged even before the toss.
If a set-up is blessed to have a genuine allrounder (in form), then by all means, pick him. If not, go with the standard, successful 6,1,4 line-up.
Thanks a lot Freddie. I wish you weren’t so good.
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