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First, we had Brad Haddin telling the public (and presumably the Australian cricket selectors) that he had been dropped from the ODI side, rather than being rested as the official story suggested.
Then we had Ryan Harris telling the public (and presumably the Australian cricket selectors) that he was perfectly fit to bowl today for Australia against Sri Lanka, even though the official story was that he was being rested to recover from injuries.
Harris has bowled about 600 overs this summer.
Peter Siddle, who is replacing him in the Australian side, has bowled more than 1000 overs. Which one of these bowlers should be protected from being over-bowled?
Of course, the real answer is neither.
Then we had Shane Watson, who is officially or unofficially (it’s hard to get confirmation on this) vice-captain of the ODI side, saying that the selectors “need to clarify whether Brad Haddin has been dropped or rested from Australia’s ODI side.”
Watson went on to claim: “he’s in limbo unfortunately … He doesn’t know which way he’s going, whether he’s being rested or dropped.”
It’s hard to believe that Watson would unilaterally make a statement like this which is so critical of the selectors if he hadn’t checked out what is going on, or not going on, with Haddin.
Then we had Ricky Ponting saying that he believes Haddin was given an explanation by the national selectors where he stands and “it is only the public who doesn’t know.”
The public, and Haddin and Watson, it seems.
Ponting also made the extraordinary claim that what Haddin “had to say when he was left out of the first game is exactly what he is saying now.”
If I can make any sense of this, what Ponting seems to be saying is that Haddin has been told that he is being rested but somehow this means that he can say that he is sure that he has been dropped.
Talk about trying to square a circle.
Then we’ve had Steve Waugh criticising the selection of Ponting to take over the captaincy of the side “which he can do standing on his ear” when the designated vice-captain in the current series is David Warner. If Warner is experienced enough to be the vice-captain, why wasn’t he given the captaincy, Waugh asks.
Good question.
If I can try and sort a way through this maze of conflicting viewpoints and statements, I think the vice-captaincy/captaincy issue may be a crucial factor. If Haddin was in today’s side, he’d captain it.
Perhaps this is why he’s been told to take a rest or whatever.
It seems that the selectors are trying to work him out of the ODI and then, at some stage, probably after the tour of the West Indies, out of the Test side.
Also, in the case of Haddin and Harris, my guess is that the selectors want to maintain a rotation policy.
The problem with this is that commentators like Tony Greig (and the TV companies playing vast amounts of money for the rights to cricket) insist that the best team should be selected every game.
In other words, no rotations.
I believe that the selectors are a competent and experienced group.
But I also believe that they don’t know what their best ODI is right now. If you think that competency and experience would make it impossible to be unsure about selections, think of the case of Sir Graham Henry.
There is no doubt about Henry being one of the greatest selectors and coaches in the history of rugby. But in the 2007 RWC tournament, he could not make up his mind about his best All Blacks starting XV.
So he adopted a rotation policy.
In five matches he fielded five different sides. The All Blacks went out of the tournament in the quarter-finals, for the first time ever.
Probably the Australian selectors have a case of the Henry’s. The answer, or one answer, is for Michael Clarke as the captain and a selector to brief Haddin totally about the thinking on his future by his fellow selectors.
Having cleared the matter up with Haddin, it would be a good thing if Clarke then went public and told the cricket community what the real story is.