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Beau Casson is an accidental victim of the desperate spin cycle that has wrong-footed the national selectors as much as the players themselves, according to chairman Andrew Hilditch.
Cricket Australia’s only contracted spinner, New South Welshman Casson has languished, confused and unwanted, since taking three wickets on his Test debut in the Caribbean earlier this year.
Overlooked for the initial squad to tour India, he was again left out when Bryce McGain was forced to fly home from the subcontinent due to a pre-existing shoulder problem while Cameron White, by his own admission a part-time spinner, was picked instead.
Jason Krejza’s sprained ankle before the second Test against New Zealand was thought to be a further opportunity for Casson to be chosen, this time in circumstances far less challenging than India, but the selectors again demurred by naming his NSW teammate Nathan Hauritz.
After the latest snub, Cricket NSW chief executive Dave Gilbert said Casson had been “shattered” by the turn of events.
Such a contention is backed up by Casson’s poor showing in all his five outings for the Blues this season, which have harvested a solitary wicket at the cost of 304 runs.
Hilditch said the initial plan had been to use Casson sparingly under the wing of senior legspinner Stuart MacGill, a plan that had been thrown out by MacGill’s deterioration and sudden retirement in the West Indies.
“Obviously our planning for our spin bowling hasn’t gone as we would have liked in the sense that we were hoping MacGill would give us 18 months to two years and then we were hoping we’d get it out of Bryce McGain but he had that shoulder injury,” Hilditch said.
“They were our plans and around that we were going to have some young spinners we were going to blood along the way.
“Those plans have gone out the window through circumstances beyond our control.”
Far from knowing that Casson was confused, Hilditch believes the left-arm spinner “knows exactly where he stands”.
“When anybody goes back to Shield cricket, they’ve got to perform, they’ve got to be at their best and they’ve got to be knocking on the door,” Hilditch said.
“So it’s a personal challenge for him but any other player who gets omitted from the team has to make sure they present themselves, ready, when that opportunity comes.”
Gilbert’s contention that Casson needed to be treated with “a lot of TLC” did not appear to move Hilditch, who appears to expect players to show a stiff upper lip – ala his own playing days in the 1980s.
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