England ODI selection policy reflects Australian lessons

They say part of being successful is to learn from one’s mistakes, to study examples of previous failure in order to navigate a more prosperous path.

As the current ODI series between England and Australia continues, it’s clear that the hosts are doing exactly that.

Yet instead of learning from their own mistakes, reflecting inwardly on the roots of personal failure, England are carefully avoiding the trappings that led to the demise of their greatest rival.

The home side’s selection policy in this series is a clear example of forward thinking.

Of the 14 men included in the ODI squad, just four played a part in the now concluded Ashes series. Key members such as James Anderson, Ian Bell, Graeme Swann, Stuart Broad, and even captain Alastair Cook, have all been rested for the season’s rather stale finale.

The Ashes have been won, the 2015 World Cup is rapidly approaching, a packed schedule looms, yet England are showing the foresight required to maintain lofty standards at the pinnacle of cricket.

In the same manner to that of many great golfers and tennis players, England have systematically targeted the game’s most illustrious honours, fixing their gaze at a select few prizes, at the cost of unrelenting, short-term success.

The result of the current ODI series is of little consequence to England, the chance to breed more international stars instead taking priority. Unlike Australia, the team that allowed unrelenting success to impede future growth, England are displaying an intent to prolong their time at the summit of the sport.

Selectors have their eyes on names such as Boyd Rankin, Ben Stokes, Jamie Overton, Jos Buttler and Chris Jordan.

Rankin, a tall fast bowler from Ireland looks perfectly suited to the quick, bouncy pitches of Australia.

Ditto for 19-year-old Overton. Stokes, at 22 years of age, looks like a true all-rounder of the future, already averaging 36.65 with the bat and 27.45 with the ball at first class level.

Buttler meanwhile, is considered the successor to Matt Prior, while Jordan is a hostile quick from the home of fast bowling in Barbados.

Instead of falling victim to the allure of blind triumph, the allure to continually hammer a rival without thought of consequence, England are ensuring their edge over Australia extends well beyond the current era.

The cornerstones of the Test side are being carefully managed.

Swann is 34, Anderson, Bell and Prior all 31, while captain Cook is approaching 29.

Kevin Pietersen, at 33, is involved in this ODI series due to the little cricket he’d played before the Ashes because of injury.

All these men, these England greats, are either in, or entering, the latter stages of their respective careers.

The ECB are not only determined the extend the life of this glorious era, they’re determined to ensure that the next one is just as fruitful.

Compare that to Australia, and it’s easy to see the lessons England have learnt.

Australia’s tour to the West Indies in 2003 is a perfect example of the lack of future planning that has crippled the once-colossal nation. Having just claimed the Ashes and the World Cup in Africa, Australia had once again scaled the highest heights of the game.

That all-conquering team had simply bulldozed its way through world cricket en route to the grandest of prizes.

That point in time represented the perfect opportunity to begin the planning for the country’s next generation. While the tour to India in 2004 and another Ashes campaign in 2005 remained high priorities, the team’s other encounters were a chance to instil new blood into the side.

The incumbents could have been managed carefully, while fresh faces were given a taste of cricket at the international level. Not only would those fresh faces have been able to groom their games against somewhat weakened opposition, they also would have rubbed shoulders with some of the greatest players in the game’s history.

Yet after flattening the West Indies 3-1 in the Test series, Australia missed a trick in the ODIs.

Instead of an injection of youth, Australia marched out their strongest side for the first game of the series in Kingston, Jamaica. The selected XI read: Gilchrist, Hayden, Ponting, Lehmann, Symonds, Bevan, Harvey, Bichel, Lee, Hogg, McGrath.

Only suspension prevented Shane Warne from taking part as well.

That side remained largely intact for all seven of the ODIs in that series, an unforgivable act of ignorance now that we, and England, have the benefit of hindsight.

The same mistake was committed when Bangladesh toured Australia for an unusual winter series in the country’s north that July. Again, a perfect opportunity for new blood presented itself.

Again, Australia fielded their great side.

By failing to look into the distance, Australia had committed the cardinal sin of resting on the laurels of immediate glory.

Consequently, the national side is a shadow of its former self. Gillespie never made it back from the 2005 Ashes trip to England. Langer, Martyn, McGrath and Warne all bowed out in 2006-07. Hayden and Gilchrist were quick to follow, while Lee succumbed to injury not long after.

The incomparable, yet ageing Ponting, was left to carry the burdening legacy on his own.

All of which has left Australia now searching for the identity of its side. The current ODI team contains a collection of journeymen and unfulfilled talents, unlikely to make a significant impact at Test level in the coming years.

Mitchell Johnson’s Test career is as good as finished, so too Clint McKay’s. George Bailey and Adam Voges are unlikely to ever claim a baggy green, while Shaun Marsh and Phillip Hughes appear destined to lead unfulfilled careers.

Yet these players find themselves in this position due to Cricket Australia’s conservatism at the beginning of the last decade.

The pathway hadn’t been created, the next generation became a case of ‘do it tomorrow’. Suddenly, Australia find themselves looking up at England, wondering where it all went wrong.

While their rivals carefully plan the succession of a glorious crop of players, Australia continue to play the selection bingo that defined England during the dark years of the 1990s.

So as Australia look to finally claim a victory on English soil in this ODI series, England continue to look ahead, knowing that blind, unrelenting success simply isn’t sustainable.

It’s their opposition that taught them that.