Krejza stuns India, along with the rest of us

daSilva - that's the thing though, isn't it, White is being forced to progress his bowling down a defensive path because, as a batter - they want him in the ODI and 20/20 squads It seems an illustration of future player development being 'compromised' for us 'test romantics' by the importance of other factors in the abbreviated versions. Problem too, at Shield level is that it's focussed too often on 'winning' the shield rather than developing new Australian representatives. The state 2nd XI's hopefully fulfill an important role to ensure that particular 'types' of players get valuable development. I do however think that Australia was so severely rattled that only come this last test are they actually willing to back a spinner in to effectively 'buy' wickets - - the Australians were too scared of going 0-2 down. So - - S.Clark trying to strangle games and Johnson etc bowling a foot outside off stump was the norm. The spinners in the main were used ONLY as an over-rate accelerator.............that's a rather ugly motive for bowling overs of spin. Come this test, Krejza has benefitted from a desperation to win. If that was the thinking all along, then fine.

MC the fact of the matter is that both Krejza and White bowl 2 bad balls an over. For a wristy that was par for the course 2 decades ago. For an offy it is unforgiveable. Krezja has potential because he does turn it. But he needs to demonstrate the necessary control to establish himself. Arguably if he had gone for 4 an over not 5 Aust would be right in this test. The top 6 slow bowlers in the country have the following records, 43@50, 111@42, 166@39, 57@33, 61@56 and 69@48. If they were seamers they would all be playing grade cricket. I favour us picking our 4 best quicks until such time as a slow bowler emerges. Punter will need to get his team organised to get through the overs but I do not understand why that is so difficult.

MC Terry Jenner once said that spinner are a late developer. People are sometimes too interest in winning matches that when the spinners is going for runs or is getting hammered like all spinner eventually will the captain will often set defensive field, then ask the spin bowler to keep things tight. SO the bowler will increase the speed and dart the ball, doesn't tossed the ball up and give it flight and then reduce the spin imparted to the ball. eg. no use for Australia in the future Krezja has an FC average of 50 because on Australian pitches they offer very little to fingerspinners. He was only pick for Tasmania for development. However he offer something that no other finger spinner in Australia have which is he is an attacking finger spinner. He tries to ripped the ball every delivery (or rip it as much as it is possible for a finger spinner), he toss the ball up and if he is getting hammered he'll try and try again. In all honesty he was more attacking and more threatening then even the spin duos of Harbarjan Singh and Misha as both of them didn't flight the ball as much as Krezja. I like his mentality - he has heart and he is a fighter and he has potential to be a good attacking spinner when played on spinning wickets (please don't play him in Australia unless the pitch will take turn like Sydney or adelaide). White was always going to be more economical then Krezja. He is the type of bowler who seldomly toss it up and bowl darts and try to keep thing in control (and he does a very mediocre job at that). PEople are only going to lose wickets against him if they try to slog him off the park. The fact is White has half the potential as a spinner as Krejza has and Ricky ponting handle of him is reflective of that. IF you are going to look at things solely as a stats it may seem baffling but if we have more captains like Ricky Ponting in A-grade and first class levels then we probably would not have any problems with spin bowlers and who to replace warney as we would have already have a test class spinner. However his decisions after tea however is less encouraging

I'm still trying to work out just what it all means. Prior to this test, White had been given only 81 overs in 3 tests, and snared Tendulkar twice, rarely been given a decent spell and going for sub 4 runs an over. M.Clarke had been often given the ball first, and in 3 tests had done just under 80 overs. Suddenly, Krejza is leaking runs and is persisted with (at the expense of ANY other spinner getting a decent 'spell' at the crease) - - and at one point is 3-200 off 40 overs. How many spinners would love their captain to guarrantee them that sort of support. In the end, he's taken another 9-158 from then on,.........off 34,5 overs. People can say all they want that Krejza should've been in earlier, and you should play your 'front line' spinner......thing still is that Krejza has very dubious claims to being a front line spinner. A 1st class career avg of over 50 for less than 50 wkts from only 24 matches and no international exposure of any sort. Other than 20 overs none for 120 odd in a tour match a few weeks back. So - - - he was hardly the 'frontline' bowler who was being 'held back'. By comparison, Cam White has 166 1st class wkts at around 39, and 13 1st class 100s and bats at just over 40. The option to play Cam White wasn't overly ridiculous - - but, his usage by Ricky Ponting has made a farce of it all. I still gain the impression that people anticipated that his ODI 6+ econ rate mate translate directly into the test arena. Thus far, it hasn't. (they ARE actually 2 different forms of the game). The irony is, Krejza got the 'caning' that it seemed was anticipated for White - - and yet, Ponting has been given accolades for persisting with Krejza after 3 overs none for 32........and having shown nothing. Again, what's so different to C.White 4 overs none for 27. Only real difference is S.Clark was pulled out, because, if you're going to just 'bowl' in India, you may as well be a spinner rather than a boring 'stock bowler' medium-quick.

Stoffy, Krejza's debut has been truly stunning. But let's not get carried away too soon. His 12 wickets were on a spinner friendly pitch. But he leaked far too many runs - the 2nd highest aggregate in test cricket. Hopefully, Krejza will move on from here, but how you start doesn't always translate into how you finish. Back in 1971-72, WA swing bowler Bob Massie captured 11 wickets in 3 unofficial internationals against a World XI, including 7-76 at the SCG. In his official test debut at Lords during the 1972 Ashes series, he took 16 wickets, 8 in each innings. He finished the series with 23 wickets in 4 tests. back home, he took 6 wickets in 2 tests against Pakistan. Then on the tour of West Indies in 1973, despite Dennis Lillee breaking down with back problems during the 1st test, Massie failed to win a test berth in any of the remaining tests. In less than 3 Australian summers, Massie had come, conquered, then disappeared. Krejza has made a most promising start to his test career. But he will need to build on this.