At various points in recent columns, I’ve bought up the problem facing Australia’s cricket selectors currently, being the spin bowler, or to be brutally honest, the apparent lack thereof.
As much as we all hoped it would happen, Shane Warne wasn’t going to play forever. What’s worse, the two players who would replace him – Brad Hogg and Stuart MacGill – barely lasted twelve months post-Warnie themselves.
Now I grant you, replacing Shane Warne wasn’t going to be easy. You can’t just find 700 Test wickets overnight. But in Hogg and especially MacGill, we still had a couple of pretty handy tweakers, and cricket fans around the country felt no obvious avenue for concern just yet.
Didn’t quite work out, did it? In the space of a few months, Hoggy decided a drawn home series against India would see him off, and after two fairly ordinary Tests in the Caribbean – despite taking that elusive 200th Test wicket – MacGill shocked team mates, supporters, and definitely selectors, by announcing his immediate retirement.
I don’t think it’s drawing too long a bow suggesting that the sudden wake-up call given to the selectors at that point would rank up there with the retirements of Lillee, Marsh, and Chappell. “Who would we pick if…” wasn’t so hypothetical any more…
So while I didn’t have too much problem with Beau Casson being given the ticket to the West Indies, as he was, and even getting a Test debut in the Third Test, I have to admit I’m a little bit confused and even disappointed in the selectors, with who they’ve sent to India this month.
Let me state up front that I have nothing against Bryce McGain and Jason Krezja, who I’m sure have worked very hard to earn their selection. In fact I don’t even think I’ve seen McGain bowl at all.
My confusion is caused by trying to interpret the message being sent to Australia’s young spin bowlers, which appears to be that three wickets in your first Test isn’t good enough. The disappointment is that there’s been no obvious explanation given as to why Casson was dropped, even knowing that he’s recovering from a groin injury picked up on the Australia A tour a month ago.
All this bewilderment has got me thinking though. I’m wondering if the selectors are going to start muttering the well used “rebuilding stage” notion, and that this might not be the last or fastest rotation of tweakers we’ll see this coming summer? And if Casson, Krezja and McGain were all hit by a bus tomorrow, who’s left to bring in?
Well unfortunately, and worryingly, the cupboard’s looking a touch bare. A quick rip around the state squads hasn’t filled me with a lot of confidence.
With the general lack of turn at the WACA, it’s hardly surprising to see only one spinner listed for WA (or that a couple have moved east over the years). Aaron Heal did have a reasonable season in 2007/08, but Australia generally hasn’t had a lot of time or patience with left-arm orthodox bowlers.
South Australia is still wondering what to do with leggie Cullen Bailey, and one-Test offie Dan Cullen. Both shot to prominence early in their careers, but both also spectacularly fell from grace after they lost their state spots last season. It will be interesting to see how or indeed if they bounce back. It’s hard to see SA being competitive without a half-decent spinner, so there will be plenty of pressure on their returns too.
In Tassie, it was Xavier Doherty’s lack of results and Dan Marsh’s shoulder problems that saw Krezja head to the Apple Isle to try his luck last year. It’s obviously paid off handsomely, with his selection in the Indian tour squad, and it will be very interesting to see if he gets a chance. He could well prove to be an answer to the one-day side’s problems too, as it was in the shorter game that he had reasonable success for NSW with his right arm offies and better-than-average batting.
Victoria of course, has been battling with the Warne factor for many years, and it would seem that in Bryce McGain they’ve found an answer. Cameron White’s sporadic Australian call-ups and lack of turn with his leg-break (an important commodity as a leg spinner, so I’m told) saw McGain get another chance for the Vics, and he finished last season as one of the better performers in the Pura Cup (and just quietly, how good is it that the Sheffield Shield is back this season?). Even at 36, it would seem that he’s still pretty fresh, not having played a lot of first class cricket until recent years. So while it will obviously be interesting to see how he goes in India, it’ll also be interesting to see how long he continues for Victoria.
White’s leggies are a bit of issue in themselves, as I mentioned, and if Krezja suddenly starts making runs AND taking wickets, White’s some-time ODI appearances could well be in doubt.
NSW have always been reasonably well-served with tweakers, and that would still appear to the case with Casson, former Queenslander and another one-Test wonder Nathan Hauritz, and the rapidly rising Steven Smith. Hauritz finished the season well enough to bump Casson out of the Pura Cup final, but Casson would seem to be the first choice spinner still, so it should make an interesting season.
Of course they both could get overtaken by the 19 year-old leggie Smith, who on sheer weight of first grade runs was thrust into the NSW T20 team last season, and then finished the competition’s leading wicket-taker (and at some ridiculous average for that form of the game). Who knows, maybe the water will get turned off at the SCG and NSW will play three spinners this season!
Queensland is the conundrum. Warne and MacGill both rated the ‘Gabba amongst their favourite grounds on which to bowl, yet Queensland haven’t produced a decent spinner since… um… oh dear, Trevor Hohns?!? Daniel Doran and Aaron Nye have been battling it out up there for years, and while ever they’re both looking over their shoulders, it’s hard to see them going much further.
So who’s next in line, if that bus comes along? White and Hauritz would seem the obvious choices, although I wouldn’t mind a lazy Fiver on young Steven Smith. Even if he takes a few seasons to cement his place for NSW, I wouldn’t think it would be too long before he was being measured up for a Baggy Green. If a young guy can take limited over wickets at a single-figure average, and be good enough to bat in the top six aged 19, he would seem destined for a long and distinguished career.
To wrap this up, I think my concern is well-founded. Australia has a long history of top class batsmen and quicks, but we’ve really only seen great spinners emerge in shortish bursts over time (think Grimmett, O’Reilly, Benaud). Before Warnie took his 7-fa against the Windies in Melbourne all those years ago, we’d seen a fair procession of tweakers of all varieties for the best part of twenty years.
Hopefully, one of these young bowlers around the country can step up to the crease in the coming seasons, and it doesn’t take another twenty years of “rebuilding” before we have our next champion spinner.
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