Dear Mr Inverarity. I’m a cricket fan, a lover of the game and now I’m close to considering myself as a former Australian supporter.
I fear there may be more in that very same boat soon, and the responsibility lies with you.
Yesterday you announced Australia’s squad for the upcoming tour of India. In said squad you named Xavier Doherty and Steve Smith because of their supposed spin bowling attributes.
I’m sure you also consider them to be great blokes or all-round good team guys. This is the final straw for a disappointed and now disenchanted fan like me who needs to see our best XI.
I hear you and your selection panel demand that players step up in the Sheffield Shield, the world’s toughest domestic first-class competition, and why not. It is the best way to see what players have got.
Yet when a player utterly fails in the perfect finishing school, they get picked for one of the toughest test tours in recent times. How on earth do you justify this?
Maybe this failure I’m alluding to is lost on you, so I’ll spell it out in simple terms and I’ll offer a logical alternative. India has promised rank turners and Doherty is more than likely to play.
Doherty’s first-class record reads like a bowler’s worst nightmare. In 51 first-class appearances to date, he has taken just 119 wickets at an absurdly abysmal average of 44.78. The fact he got a baggy green in the first place is a disgrace.
But he’s developed as a player, I hear you say. He took a three-for in a one-day international and a T20, that should never count towards a test call up.
If you think it does, you are not fit to select Australia’s team. This season he has two shield wickets at 80 and now he’s got a recall? Please.
The selection of Doherty is an absolute farce. Equally as concerning is the exclusion of Australia’s best spinner, New South Wales captain Steve O’Keefe.
He is the only Australian spinner with a bowling record that actually looks like that of a bowler. Of all the candidates, his bowling record is miles ahead of the chasing pack.
He’s the only serious contender with a bowling average under 30 in first-class cricket (which should be an unwritten prerequisite for consideration).
O’Keefe adds huge value with his lower order batting, something Doherty certainly doesn’t bring to the table.
Not only this, but O’Keefe, being captain of NSW, has exceptional leadership skills and is a fantastic team man – something you bash on about far too much.
So why have you not picked O’Keefe? How can you possibly justify Doherty’s selection over the exceptional case put forward by O’Keefe?
The next of your decisions in my firing line is the selection of Steve Smith. You said yourself that he’s been batting well this season without making a big score. Come again? Are runs over-rated all of a sudden?
It’s no coincidence that Smith is touted and mocked for being Australia’s ‘specialist fielder’.
An opinion like that, broadly expressed across the board, doesn’t come to fruition out of nothing. There is certainly a hard hitting home truth to it.
He certainly isn’t anywhere near being a test match bowler and he is yet to show the application and technique to handle batting in Test cricket, evidenced by his performance in the Sri Lanka ODI series.
Now to your delusional obsession with creating a test match winning all-rounder. We haven’t got an all-rounder of that quality, so why should we be handing out baggy greens for the sake of having a guy there who isn’t good enough to be a batsman, and isn’t good enough to be a bowler.
You cannot manufacture these sorts of players, they’re a luxury you make the most of when you’ve got them. The type of bits and pieces all-rounder you want in the side was a comical feature of the ’90s English Ashes sides we used to laugh at. How times have changed.
Your one job is to pick the best 11 players in Australia. I can guarantee any casual observer will tell you that you’re failing miserably.
Not all of them would be able to do your job, but the serious cricket fans among us, I believe, could do a better job than you.
My preferred side is Warner, Watson, Hughes, Khawaja, Clarke, and young Joe Burns, who looks a future batting star for Australia, as our batting unit.
Wade is our keeper for the next decade and his place is unquestionable. Steve O’Keefe, Siddle, Pattinson and Lyon are a bowling attack more than capable of taking 20 wickets in India.
A flat wicket might mean the inclusion of Starc whose left arm variation and swing adds another dynamic to the attack. Can you tell me why your team is better than mine? I’d like to hear it if you can.
Australia faces its toughest 12 months in recent memory. We play three must-win series. There is no way in the world that Xavier Doherty and Steve Smith can ever be part of a world beating team, and that’s the sort of team we need to be putting together.
By picking second rate players you are distancing us, the fans, and the ones who watch the TV advertising and dish out our money for the ticket admissions which pay your salary.
I don’t want to support a team of bits and pieces cricketers. You have picked a team including an opening batsman who isn’t even close to the best domestic players in the country in Ed Cowan and a spin bowler who wouldn’t play a test for any other country in the world.
I was a dedicated Australian cricket fan, but you’ve lost me. I’m now going for the West Indies, at least they’re cool.
Regards,
TheGenuineTailender
*Footnote – James Sutherland: after Inverarity resigns, I’m more than happy to take his place as chairman of selectors.
Justin Ware
Roar Rookie
Hey GenuineTailender, Great article mate and totally agree! Keep it up I look forward to your coverage of the Indian tour.
TheGenuineTailender
Roar Guru
Cricket Australia has already confirmed some adjustments to next summer's scheduling. It should mean we end up with Shield cricket running almost to Christmas. I think most people will agree, this can only be considered a positive move.
Jason
Guest
TGT - the Windies called and asked that you stop supporting them. The pressure is too much. Mon.
Red Kev
Guest
I think it's pretty clear there are quite a few of us who would like to be paid to watch Shield cricket.
matt h
Guest
One big issue for the selectors has been CA's decision to play no domestic first class cricket during the majority of the summer. So, if you are not in the test team there has only been the BBL in which to judge a player's form. So, we criticise for picking, for example, Doherty based only on short game form, but there has been no opportunity until last weekend for Doherty or anyone else to show and long game form. A serious problem for the selectors.
Neil
Guest
Nick, thanks for your response. However, I'm not sure how you can say that statistics are pushing the case of O'Keefe, but not Doherty, when their statistics are actually quite similar over the past three years. And if, as you claim, shield pitches have been notoriously bowler friendly, won't that have inflated everyone else's statistics as well? Doherty has only been available for four shield matches this season in between international commitments and in those he has only bowled in four innings and even then he has only bowled more than eight overs in two of those. Further, the other spinners in those games didn't exactly set the shield alight either -- they weren't spin-friendly decks. O'Keefe, for example bowled more overs in last week's shield game than Doherty has bowled all season. Doherty's sample size this FC season is really too small to say that he is pathetically out of form. And his recent ODI and T20I bowling suggests that his form is quite OK. You are obviously quite fixed in your opinions about Doherty. That's fine. And as I said, I'm an O'Keefe fan too. And he's clearly the better batsman. But I bet you didn't realise their bowling records were so similar over the past three years.
Matt F
Roar Guru
I would have had Rogers in for Cowan and either move Watson to 6 and tell him to bowl, or play Bailey. Otherwise it's the same as your order. I agree with your point below about how players shouldn't just be picked because of a single or half season hot streak (like Henriques) but isn't that the same for Burns? He's had a good season last year in his first full season but his second season hasn't been great. Give him 12 months and see if he can find the form from last summer. Don't rush him when he doesn't appear ready
Renegade
Guest
Neil, Good post and certainly brings another perspective. I think Doherty is very valuable in our limited overs sides but like everyone else have serious concerns for him being rated a test player. Hopefully you end up being right and he cleans up in India.
Renegade
Guest
Why not George Bailey? As far as i'm concerned his proven himself at international level in other formats.
TheGenuineTailender
Roar Guru
Always good insight from you Sheek and I'll take note to step back from time to time and let things pan out. What frustrates me is how clear cut it appears that O'Keefe is the only sensible option. But hey, why should I care anyway? I go for the Windies now. Ya mon!
sittingbison
Guest
I simply could not believe my eyes reading this Invers jaffa: "Another alternative is to play three pace bowlers, our leading spinner, whether that be Xavier Doherty or Nathan Lyon, and then have the back-up with the all-rounder in Glenn Maxwell. That's been our thinking." Our leading spinner being Doherty OR Lyon? WTF?? Sheek, if these are the thoughts of the NSP then cricket is in more trouble than junior development
Bunny Colvin
Guest
Said it during the South Africa series that I was prepared to give the new selection panel a go, but it was just more of the same rubbish as we got dealt under Hilditch. Get rid of Inverarity and his collaborators. They are the rats in the Australian cricketing larder.
Nick
Roar Guru
Mate, Most of what you say makes sense, but nonetheless furthers the argument why he should not be picked. Furthermore, what you have discuss does not match at all with what the NSP have reasoned. For Inverarity to say his past two years he has improved is akin to Hilditch saying that Hauritz has a good record in India (7 wickets for a ridiculously high average at that point). It is either a flat lie, or just a man who is dreadful at his job. In regards to your first point: he does bowl attackingly in shield, and yet has taken just 2 wickets at 80. That is a pathetic return. Pathetic. He attacks, and instead is attacked. You cannot parachute a man into a team with that form under his belt. You cannot discount recent records because then you are taking an irresponsible risk. That he hasnt played much FC cricket is also another reason why he shouldn't be picked. Should we have Shane Warne in the team? He hasnt played FC cricket in 4 years but his record was pretty good up till that point. In regards to his FC record...shield pitches over the past two years were notoriously bowler friendly. His figures simply reflect that reality, and are not indicative of a man in good form. He did play his tests on batting tracks, that is true. But even when he tried to bowl defensively, he was carted. All over the place. Repeatedly. Whether he was attacking or defensive in his bowling, he was attacked. All over the place. Repeatedly. This Sydney centric media thread you are trying to argue is nonsense. Statistics are pushing the case of SOK. Statistics are pushing the backlash against Doherty. Doherty is being picked because the better ones are injured. Nothing more, nothing less. Australia should use the services of David Warner and Michael Clarke as the second spinner. Its embarrassing that these two batsman have better bowling records than Doherty. Australian cricket is not a meritocracy mate. Its a boys club. Believe it.
TheGenuineTailender
Roar Guru
Knowing them, Shaun Marsh or Aaron Finch.
boes
Roar Pro
That's what scares me. If Cowan fails, Waston has no form and will probably only play 2 tests and Khawaja - the man everyone wants in the side also fails. Where do the selectors turn next. What would our touring party and top 6 look like for the Ashes?
sheek
Roar Guru
TGT, It's easy for us to criticise what we see on the surface. But if Doherty is the second best spinner in Australia, then that tells me we have a massive problem with our junior cricket. And it's not as if this problem surfaced overnight. Even when Warne & MacGill were in their prime, there wasn't much else around. So this problem goes back almost as far as you want to take it. Even back in the 70s, when every state had two or three competent first class capable spinners, people were worried then that the spinning stocks were thinning. It's not only Doherty. The team to India has been criticised far & wide, & fair enough. But I look at it slightly differently. It's all very well to say 4 or 5 guys don't deserve to be in the team, but where are the better alternatives? Mostly it's arguments such as I like/you like. But ultimately, my X selection is no better than your Y selection, or vice-versa. Neither really adds better value, it's just a transfer of one preference for another. CA is obsessed with making a bucket of money with the BBL. But while they're busy doing that, the game is going to pot in so many other ways. It's too easy for us to criticise the selectors, but the real problems in my view, are going to take longer & a lot more thought & effort to rectify.
SurlyPie
Guest
TGT, great post and I'd agree with just about all of it. Re Rogers and Hussey, you're right that in a perfect world they would have 30 Tests under their belt and be solid members of the line up already, but in a situation where you've lost Ponting and M Hussey and the side already has plenty of inexperience in the likes of Hughes, Khawaja, Warner, Cowan (and any of the random all-rounders they go with), I'd definitely be suggesting that D Hussey and Rogers are good options. They won't be overawed that's for sure!
TheGenuineTailender
Roar Guru
And fail he will.
Disco
Roar Guru
Khawaja will be stuffed around selection-wise, either in India or (assuming he's not discarded again) in England. They don't like him and that's what counts with these dunces.
Red Kev
Guest
Good write up TGT - I couldn't agree more.