While the timing might be supremely odd, Cricket Australia have made the right move in sacking coach Mickey Arthur.
The dressing room culture and the feeling, both internal and external, around the national team at the moment speak to a unit that is in serious trouble ahead of the Ashes.
Players that have been our best in previous years have been performing terribly of late, and the fact that off-field scandal after off-field scandal has dogged the group says just as much about the squad and their mentality as their on-field performance.
There have been rumours flying around of a rift between captain Michael Clarke and former vice captain Shane Watson, who despite people’s protestations about his character is a genuine match winner and two-time Allan Border Medallist.
Scandals seems to be popping up everywhere, admittedly most of them revolving around David Warner, but the homeworkgate fiasco cannot be ignored here.
The dropping of four players for not completing a simple, minor task was a scandal that was created completely in-house. It could have been avoided entirely had anyone in a position of leadership shown the slightest degree of assertiveness.
This clanger of a decision was one of two things: either a overzealous piece of administration or a sign of lazy, unmotivated players unwilling to improve themselves.
Whichever one it was, the administration in India at the time completely failed to deal with the situation in a reasonable way. The same goes for the administration in Australia, if you remember Pat Howard saying Shane Watson is a team man “sometimes.”
If it was overly heavy-handed administrating then Arthur probably deserved to go right then and there. Instead four players missed a Test they probably shouldn’t have missed which led to yet another flogging of the fractured Australians by a ruthless Indian team.
If the players were to blame, then the question as to why they were so unmotivated about doing their homework has to be asked.
There was and is no on-field evidence of Mitchell Johnson or James Pattinson lacking motivation to improve. And why Usman Khawaja, who under Arthur wasn’t allowed near a set of whites, failed to complete such a seemingly important task is as baffling as why David Warner was lambasting Aussie journos at 3am on Twitter.
Informed player management has proven to be another horrible piece of policy-making for the past couple of years, mainly in virtue of the fact that the only people who don’t seem to be informed of their management is the players.
Peter Siddle was rested for a crucial final Test against South Africa after the Aussies had already lost Pattinson and overlooked Hilfenhaus. To remind you, they went into that match (which was for the number one Test ranking, no less) with three brand new quicks; Hastings, Johnson and Starc.
There was no bigger game for months. It was Australia’s time to put the disappointment of an Adelaide hold-out behind them and sieze the number one spot for themselves.
Instead, informed player management decided we’d take a second-string attack into a match that we promptly lost.
The rotating of players has led to a vibe of uncertainty for players, and many pundits have associated it with the lack of a clear team direction and selfishness among the players. You can certainly understand why you would want to be selfish about playing and performing well in as many games as possible if your livelihood was at stake
All these problems are cannot be solely attributed to Mickey Arthur, and you would probably expect a couple more heads to roll after his.
But make no mistake, this is a step in the right direction, and with many already touting Darren Lehmann as the next coach I’m confident the Aussie team will be in safer hands.
Lehmann has a touch of the old school about him, and he should certainly silence the chorus of former 90s and early 2000s players who have been banging on non-stop about how things were inestimably better in their day.
Perhaps most importantly he has the ability to build strong relationships with his charges, a facet of his leadership that you hear spruiked by almost every player he has ever coached.
This should, at the very least, lead to the emphasis of informed player management being placed back on the player; how their body is feeling, and if they are fit to bowl 30 overs or score a century in the upcoming match.
Let’s hope that this will allow us to do what punters have been crying out for in the last couple of years: to put our best available XI on the paddock in every match, not just when the selectors feel is a good time.
But all of this comes with a big disclaimer. Mickey was not the be all and end all of Australia’s cricketing problems. We need to get out mojo back, and fast.
The boys in that team need to start gelling.
Shane Watson needs to continue bowling, and begin hitting the skin off that ball once more. He is more crucial to our plans than most people would care to admit.
Phil Hughes and David Warner both need to get used to leaving balls outside the off stump, and Warner needs to holster his twittering and punching hand.
Clarke needs to get his back right. We all need to say a little prayer for him as well.
Our bowlers need to be fit and firing, ready to tear into the tough-as-old-boots English top order.
And our new coach needs to get the team focused on a common goal. He needs to rebuild relationships and forge new ones, and fast.
Getting rid of Arthur doesn’t guarantee all this will happen, but it helps.
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Heartbreak for Scotland and Chris Sole!
When Glenn Maxwell was comprehensively bowled by a sensational delivery from Mark Watt, Scotland seemed on the verge of their greatest victory ever. Needing…
Boy, will England hate seeing that!
It was one of Australia's six drops for the innings as Scotland made 5-180.
While the second one was a little tricky, the Aussie skipper should have taken the other two.
