Nice article Giri. I agree the bowlers will rue not wrapping up the tail quickly, but at least they bowled england out twice and gave the batters 4th innings chases they ought to have achieved. India’s batting really let them down. It should have been at least 2-2 going to The Oval. I guess much the same batting lineup will come to Australia, but looking forward is there really much point persisting with Pujara, Rahane, Vijay, Dhawan? Are these players ever likely to take their game to the next level or is it time to look at the next generation?

Interested in your thoughts on Shastri? In public he is a great optimist cum cheerleader, but is he delivering as coach? I can’t help but wonder about Kumble, the story is the players felt he pushed them too hard, but perhaps that approach in the long run might have paid dividends in South Africa and England?

Spot on. Strauss says KP won’t be considered for the team (i.e test team) due to ‘trust’ issues, yet Mr Untrustworthy is somehow trustworthy enough to be offered a mentoring role in the ODI team.

Of course, Cook and other senior players are in the test team…and almost certainly not in the ODI team anymore.

So perhaps all this talk of trust is nonsense. It comes down to this – the senior English players don’t like KP and don’t want him around. They may well have good reason to dislike him, but they aren’t in a club team, they are paid professionals in a team that is not delivering. Given how poorly the team has played since the 2013 Ashes, surely it should have been time to tell those seniors that that they just have to lump it and find a way to be work as teammates with him if KP returns.

Agree with a number of points, but could not disagree more about reducing the number of teams. 12 is nearly as bad as 10. If (and I’m willing for Kersi to clarify) the reasoning is that UAE and Scotland didn’t play well therefore the number of teams should be cut, then that’s a regressive response. What this world cup has shown is that the Associates are competitive with the lower test nations, and occasionally (AfgvSL) the better ones, and they need more opportunities at and in between world cups to close the gap further. To put it into perspective, England also played badly, far worse in fact considering the amount of money (including ICC funding) and fixtures they receive when compared to the Associates. As others have said cricket should use the formula that works well in the other intenational sports – small group rounds which leads to the knockout stage. Based on what the Associates have shown here. a 16 team, 4×4 tournament should work and the tournament would not be as drawn out as the 1×10, 2×7 or 2×6 format.

Vas, your points are valid, particularly in regard to test aspirants not getting experience in playing spin, but the reality is you have to use what you have, and on that basis Khawaja has surely earnt another chance. If Khawaja is the future (and many think he is) then bring him in now and stick with him for a while. If not, the only ready option (and short-term at that) in my opinion is David Hussey. As for the fact there’s a lot of lefties, this is definitely an issue but Alistair Cook, and Darren Bravo last year, negated the Indian spinners and you’d hope there’ll be some major analysis of how they played when preparing for India (I’d throw Chanderpaul in there as well but I don’t anyone could copy his batting style!).

I realise the Ashes is the highest-profile series for Australia, but shouldn’t we be thinking more about the upcoming Indian series? We have 4 tests against them. Our record in India isn’t great (1 series win in the last 5) but India is vulnerable at the moment so there’s a great opportunity to get a rare win there. Shouldn’t that be our focus and then after that we can worry about the Ashes? I just think we’re becoming to insular in our thinking. Like everyone I recognise the Ashes as our biggest series, but we shouldn’t disregard our other challenges.

Johnson was poor in the last Ashes, but he was hardly Robinson Crusoe in that regard and he did a lot to win the Perth test, without him it may well have been 4-0 instead of 3-1. He’s a frustrating player for sure, but given our injury-prone attack and his matchwinning potential, probably a risk worth taking. I suspect if he does fall back into bad habits and Pattinson is fit again, they won’t persist with him (surely?!).

Sheek, I’m not sure I share your view on the benefit the West Indian team brought to South African society. The SA government approved the tour (and financially assisted tour sponsors) primarily to bring a veneer of normality to a discredited and slowly crumbling regime. The tour was largely opposed by the black population. While its a fair point that the all-black WI team may have helped change some attitudes amongst the white population, it’s also worth remembering that during the second tour Colin Croft was ordered out of a whites-only train carriage, so the effect was pretty limited. In saying all that, I can understand the reasons these players went to SA – in particular, given the paltry pay of WI domestic cricketers, it made financial sense to go. From a cricketing perspective the two tours make fascinating reading. The depth of the West Indies at the time was incredible, and Rowe must also have been an excellent captain to rally a injury-riddled team to twice come from behind, to draw the 82-83 and win the 83-84 ‘test’ series.

True Wade had a bad miss and didn’t have the greatest day, but if missing a stumping is grounds for changing keepers as David suggests, we would have keepers coming and going every couple of tests, including the now fabled Brad Haddin who was always reliable for a few clangers every series.

Jason, I thought the same thing! I generally go with the opposite of whatever Conn writes…

Vas, certainly I’m in 100% agreement with what you say! For all my disquiet on CA’s role in this (hopefully isolated) case, I agree that they have made some progress in being more inclusive and trust they’ll continue on the path of inclusion.

Vas, while agreeing with your sentiments, the real issue to me is not Greg Ritchie because it may be too late for Ritchie to change who he is. As geoffo suggested the really sad thing is how Cricket Australia (and/or the State Associations), a board with a pretty poor history of engaging with ethnic groups and indigenous Australia compared to other sporting bodies, didn’t have the judgement within their organisation to realise that allowing Ritchie to spout his nonsense at their functions reflects badly on them and makes the sport appear uninclusive to the public. There really should have been alarm bells ringing in CA about this a long time ago, as it was it took bad media publicity to move them into action.

I disagree with the notion that he used cricket as a stairway to fame, as alluded in the article, and I don’t think Clarke has changed that much at all. It was just that many people took to internet forums and social media to insult a person they hadn’t met on the basis of such important things as his tattoos, hair, advertisements and ex-girlfriends, or the ridiculous notions that he was given an easy ride and was somehow responsible for the non-renewal of Simon Katich’s contract. I’ve read with disbelief the personal vitriol directed towards him over the years, particularly after the Ashes series defeats, and I wouldn’t be surprised that the team loses a series in the future or if Clarke has a bad run of form that the personal attacks will increase again. In contrast, Clarke’s shown a lot of class in getting on with the job. Even as a stand-in captain he showed a lot of flair and he’s carried that on as a full-time skipper, and his great form as a batsman since taking the captaincy shows he can handle the responsibility.

Joe, great article, really pleased to read this. I agree with everything you wrote and I have always liked the salary cap mechanism to ensure a framework for a genuine competition between all clubs rather than the ‘greed is good’ European leagues.

Rabbitz, your reaction is (deliberately?) over-the-top. Nothing’s changing but the playing hours of the game, and it’s not being mandated either. It’s subject to agreement between the two cricket boards involved in the test if they so choose. Along with Ian’s point of people not showing up to long-form cricket, its a fair bet that TV ratings during weekdays when most are at work/school aren’t too flash either, so having part of the game played when people are actually home to watch it might help get more people interested in test cricket. I’d argue that’s good for the game and in fact well overdue. The attitude that test cricket is something sacred and unchangeable (not true anyway if you look at the history) that can’t be altered will surely ensure that tests will fade into obscurity in the next few decades if not sooner.

David, 4 day tests are a good idea, however I tend to agree with paddyeff2 that 4 sessions in a day could be a pretty long haul. If you add 15 minutes to each current 2 hour session, you could have a 27 hour 4 day test, which isn’t too bad compared to the current 30 hour 5 day test keeping in mind that not many tests last to the final session these days anyway. Apart from that I also like the idea of day-night tests, it’d be nice to watch a session after work, instead of rushing home to catch the last 15 minutes of the day’s play.

David, I’m not sure your attempt at sarcasm is justified. Red Kev and Gina’s points are spot on. If current form was the sole criterion (and it often isn’t the only reason – many players have been picked on potential with an eye to the future) then Wade made a good score against Qld recently and kept well in the T20 WC, so he is in good form. Allied to that is his good performance in the West Indies and that at 24 he represents a potential long-term option. Haddin’s past performances are completely relevant to the selection process. He’s been around for 43 tests, so everyone has had a good look at him over a long period and knows what we get with him – patchy keeping and inconsistent batting. In my opinion it was always a straightforward decision to select Wade.

Phil, as pointed out he is starting for FD which is in the top-flight Bundesliga and is currently 11th in that comp – playing in the top flight in Germany itself is surely a great education for him. Also, in my opinion he’s been a good contributer for the Socceroos. Nevertheless, apologies to all for any distress I caused before by posting such a low-standard comment 🙂

Jamesb- great comments re the competitiveness of Europe. The fact that the club football landscape has changed globally since the 90s often gets overlooked. It’s also worth noting that Kruse made it to Europe (and the socceroos) via Brisbane Roar and Melbourne Victory, so that shows it is quite viable for young players to build a career via the A-League. Pim’s somewhat defeatist views on the A-league aren’t necessarily backed up by the facts.

Don Corleone, I agree with what you say about the Aussie team bashing and if you have time go back in the archive on this website to last year and read some of the comments about Clarke before the start of last season. There seemed to be a certainty amongst many that Clarke was completely unsuitable as captain and that Australia would lurch to disaster with him in charge. Of course it turned out that he did a fine job, but for whatever reason it seems the resentment still lingers among some.

Nick, fair enough if you’re not excited about the upcoming season, but could you further explain what you mean about Clarke? I mean how last season did he prioritise his brand over the job of test captain?

Fussball I have to say that’s a baffling attitude. Quite obviously many people may follow the A-league but for family/financial reasons and priorities can only get to a few games a year. I’d also argue the reason they’d attend is not for water cooler cred but because they want to watch a game of football? (sometimes the simplest explanation is the correct one). In my case I live in Canberra, so I don’t have a team to support, does that make me and 350,000 Canberrans living in a city with a high rate of soccer participation another bunch who shouldn’t be bothered with?

Ian is right, the ‘who’s not with me is against me/not worth bothering with’ attitude is counterproductive, doesn’t encourage wider engagement and can only give oxygen to the A-league haters. We already have one football neo-con in Craig Foster. I don’t think we need any more 🙂

Brendon – good analysis, but as to your first point keep in mind the 1998 series where Tendulkar consciously attacked and dominated Warne through the test and ODIs. I think it was pretty much after that time that Warne consistently said that Tendulkar was the best he’d bowled to.

Pakistan’s rise has been a real feel-good story and it’s a real credit to them. Apparently Australia are scheduled to play 5 ODIs and a T20 against Pakistan (presumably in the UAE) in August-September. Wouldn’t it be better to convert it into a 2 or 3 game test series? It’d be a good challenge for both sides and would be far more interesting than an ODI series. Such itinerary changes have happened before, so there is a precedent.

It’s an interesting side discussion Ian and stabpass…it’s hard to comment on each player’s motivations but I suspect most of the rebel cricketers went for the money rather than with a pro-apartheid agenda. That includes West Indian and Sri Lankan cricketers who surely weren’t apartheid supporters. That’s not to defend Hogg or any of the rebels – the SA Govt of the time gave tax exemptions to the tour sponsors, so in effect they were subsidising the tour and the rebel players’ tour fees. That must surely be the great disappointment with these rebel cricketers – they took money from a institutionally racist government with little to no consideration of the moral implications. It seems time has healed the wounds as many English and Australian ex-rebels hold media and administrative roles in cricket now, but the whole thing remains a sad and rather grubby chapter in cricket.

Agree with you Vas – Ricky should be persisted with for the time being with such a young batting line up, and certainly the Indians would rather him out of the side than in. I think he’s aware that he needs runs to justify his position as well. Unlike last season he doesn’t have the burden of captaining a poorly selected and under-performing team. He can concentrate on his game and if he doesn’t make runs this summer and there are clear alternatives then fine, give him the ‘tap on the shoulder’. The Tendulkar comparison is often made but just as pertinent is Rahul Dravid. Dravid had a couple of lean years – not as statistically bad as Ricky but certainly he was being carried for a fair bit of the time. He’s now silenced all the critics and is as valuable to India as ever. Ricky has the calibre to do the same for Australia.