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The rot has set in for the new-look Australian cricket team with a disastrous defeat in the second Test of a four-Test series. The only way to stop the rot is for heads to roll when the team gets back to Australia.
The first lot of heads to go should be the selection panel.
They have not managed the admittedly difficult transition of the side with the loss of two of the greatest bowlers in the history of cricket, Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne. They have mucked about with a batting order and picked players who may be good ODI players, but who lack the class for Test cricket.
Simon Katich is a good example.
He has scored a huge amount of runs in the last couple of seasons, but not as an opening bat. So Phil Jaques, who was making a promising start to a Langer-like career as an Australian opener, was dropped and Katich promoted.
One of the justifying arguments for this move was that Katich could provide some cover for the pathetic Australian spin attack with his left-arm chinaman stuff.
But he has not been bowled, even when Cameron White was so rattled that he bowled a four wide in India’s second innings.
White seems to be a very pleasant, likeable and enthusiatic player, but neither his bowling nor his batting is up to Test standard.
He does a little bit of both, but not much of anything – a bit like those nondescript English all-rounders who we’ve derided so much in the past.
It’s difficult to work out the logic behind the thinking that saw him placed in the impossible position of being Australia’s main spinner in a Test.
Brad Haddin is another example of a player who is not up to Test standard as a wicket-keeper, nor as a batsman. Ian Healey’s batting was ordinary, but his keeping was exemplary.
Haddin’s keeping is average, to say the least of it.
The selectors (or a new group of selectors, in my view) have to find someone who can either keep wickets up to the standard of Healy, can hold his place in the side as a batsman, or, preferably, can do both.
Haddin is not this player.
Now we get to the issue of captaincy.
I wrote a post after the first day of the Test complaining about Ricky Ponting’s negative captaincy and how he seemed to be looking to play for a draw after losing the toss. I made the point that playing for a draw and not trying to get the Indian batsmen out with aggressive fields and well-directed bowling allowed India to get into a position where they could win the Test, which they did comprehensively.
It’s clear now that Ponting is a great batsman and a mediocre captain, rather like Sachin Tendulkar.
Michael Clarke, on the other hand, has the personality and cricket nous to be an outstanding captain in the Ian Chappell mode.
This is a change that needs to be made before the Ashes series to rejunevate the side and give it some dynamic leadership that Ponting clearly cannot give it.
Without the burdens of captaincty, Ponting might be able to take his batting to a higher level than what he has achieved now, which would be a bonus for the side.
One of the noticeable aspects of the Test, something that was picked up on by the television commentators, was the inability of the Australian quick bowlers to move the ball in the air or off the pitch.
The Indian bowlers had no such difficulties.
An answer to this curiosity was provided at one stage when pictures of the ball being bowled by the Indians was matched with the Australian ball after a similar number of overs. The Australian ball was scuffed on both sides. The Indian ball was scuffed on one side and shiny on the other side.
The difference between the scuffed side and shiny side allows for reverse swing, provided the ball is released with the seam in an upright position.
Why didn’t the Australian fieldsmen and bowlers look after their ball in the way the Indians did? What is the coaching staff doing?
And what advice are they giving Ponting about field-setting and what bowlers to use in particular situations?
On the third day of the Test, for instance, Brett Lee did not bowl for the first two hours. What is this all about? Where is the coaching staff in all of this?
Great teams, even good teams, don’t come about by chance. Decisions made by selectors are crucial.
My argument is that the current selectors have not performed well in their task of putting together the best side Australian cricket can produce right now. Cricket Australia needs to acknowledge this and put in place a new group to do what needs to be done.
Just for starters, someone like Geoff Lawson, an outstanding captain for NSW, a good Test player, a very good coach, and a thoughtful and informed man about the history and practices of cricket, might be an excellent choice as a coach or as Chairman of selectors to start the now urgent process of restoring the Australian cricket team to its proper place as the top cricketing nation.