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It has been almost two and a half years since the release of a report into elite cricket in Australia, the Argus Report.
Chaired by former BHP Billiton chairman Don Argus and a panel including Malcolm Speed and Australian cricket royalty Allan Border, Mark Taylor and Steve Waugh the primary objective of the review was to make recommendations to the Cricket Australia Board that would lead the Australian cricket team back to the top of the in all three formats of international cricket – Tests, ODIs and Twenty20.
At the time, Australian Test cricket was on its knees after a frighteningly swift fall from grace.
Only four years after the 1995-2007 era of dominance, Australia had only won five of its past 11 series, including losses to South Africa at home, India away (twice) and the consecutive Ashes losses to England (away and home).
In doing so, Australia’s ICC Test ranking had slipped from number one to number five.
After an exhaustive analysis of prior series reviews, surveys, formal and ad hoc submissions and approximately 60 interviews with key stakeholders, including current Australian senior players, many of the document’s varied proposals were adhered to with vigour. And heads rolled.
National coach Tim Nielsen was invited to re-apply for his job but didn’t bother wasting his time while three national selectors, Andrew Hilditch, Greg Chappell and Jamie Cox were given the flick.
Following a thorough search that included an attempt to entice England coach Andy Flower among others, former South African coach Mickey Arthur got the coaching job ahead of contenders Steve Rixon, Tom Moody and Justin Langer.
Fast forward to October 2013 and with Arthur long gone from the job and the English having retained the Ashes, he seemed to be itching to see the Australian side stay down for the count.
“There are some serious players in Cricket Australia under a lot of pressure around this Test series,” Arthur told Fairfax Radio.
“If they lose this Test series there is going to be a lot of questions asked. I think James Sutherland, I think Pat Howard, I think Michael Clarke … I think some serious heads could roll if Australia don’t win this Test series.”
So, come 2014 and with the ‘urn returned’ and Arthur home kicking his dog in the guts, where does Australian Test cricket sit relative to the recommendations from Don ‘Don’t Argue’ Argus’ report?
This week Australia took back the number-one mantle in one-day cricket from India.
A big tick you may think, however at the time the report was released, the Australian side was already top dog in the ODI format despite exiting from the 2011 World Cup at the quarter-final stage, our worst result since 1992. A good result nonetheless. Tick.
The report lamented that the Test team “has not found replacement bowlers anywhere near the calibre of McGrath and Warne, or indeed an attack that can take 20 wickets consistently”.
It is doubtful we will ever see the likes of those too champions again, the second point was clearly a major issue.
You can’t win Tests unless you knock over the other mob twice. At the time, Australia had only taken 20 poles twice in their past nine Tests.
As of today, Messers Harris, Johnson, Siddle and co have taken 20 wickets seven times in the past 10 Tests. Tickety tick.
Feedback about the Futures League age restrictions was very strongly in the negative.
State second XI matches occurred on an ad hoc basis while Greg Chappell had championed the benefits of having only three players over the age of 23 allowed to play in each Futures League team.
What had been the obvious stepping stone between grade and Shield cricket had become what many considered a ‘glorified juniors competition instead of the strong contest, sprinkled with the odd exceptional teenager’.
Thankfully, the panel’s recommendation was that the Futures League revert to a second XI competition and from the 2011–12 season it has returned to four-day matches with no over restrictions and six players over the age of 23 allowed to play in the team.
And late in 2013, CA’s high performance head honcho Pat Howard has written to grade clubs informing them states can pick more than six players over 23. Tickety, tick, tick.
So while it’s not all doom and gloom, if we’re being fair dinkum you can stick the report up your Argus.
Pat Howard. He’s done it pretty tough, has Pat. The Cricket Australia high-performance manager told the press that Shane Watson acted in the interests of the team “sometimes” while Shane Warne referred to him as a “muppet”.
He represented the organisation when Mickey Arthur was sacked, even delivering the coup de grace to him in the Australian team’s Bristol hotel, and he was a big wrap for the bloody rotation policy.
His CA brief was to oversee all facets of team performance, selection, coaching, the Centre of Excellence, and dealing with state officials, all the while only answering to CA boss James Sutherland.
What on earth would a rugby union man be able to offer John Inverarity, Mickey Arthur and Michael Clarke in terms of cricketing nous?
Indeed, when Darren Lehmann was given the Australian coaching job there was clearly to be none of that.
Howard’s push aside was never more evident than when he stood in front of the SCG Members like a naughty boy while the Australian players and staff were presented with the Ashes trophy.
Howard claimed his stepping back was a deliberate action however not all the kids in the class get invited to the birthday party.
The Argus Report detailed four key batting weaknesses that required urgent attention – failure to bat for long periods, an inability to handle the moving ball, a poor approach to spin and generally flawed techniques.
In the 5-0 Ashes thumping, the Australians piled on ten centuries in the series – two each for David Warner, Chris Rogers, Michael Clarke and Steve Smith – so clearly there has been some improvement in occupying the crease.
And you may like to ask Graeme Swann how the Australians have recently handled spin.
However, were it not for Brad Haddin pulling the top order out of the mire in every Test this summer, the home side may not have bolted the series in as they did.
Clearly the less-than-sound techniques in the Australian line-up remain and will be tested for all they’re worth in South Africa.
A big focus of the report, that was obviously brought about by the Test team’s alarming fall from grace in the wake of so many retirements in the mid to late ‘noughties’, was succession planning. Or a lack thereof.
As Australia were being laid waste in India early last year, Tom Moody spoke for many when he wrote, “I can’t understand why Nathan Lyon was axed. He’s not the finished product yet but was on track. Lack of patience and trust!”
You’d need the patience of a saint to understand a great many of the Australian selectors decisions.
Granted they have just picked an unchanged side that has clean-swept their opposition five-zip, however this week Inverarity and his crew have returned to form.
The Argus Report claimed it was “critical that superior performance is rewarded” and “players must earn their positions in the time-honoured way of making runs”.
Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I present Exhibit A.
“He’s in a good space at the moment Shaun,” Inverarity explained.
“And we all know that when Shaun plays at his best he’s a very good player, and it seems to us that he’s in that space at the moment.”
A ‘good head space’. 30-year-old Shaun Marsh has a first-class average of 35.02. He has averaged 25 over the past two years, the time since he last pulled on a baggy green cap. 25.
He has 248 Shield runs at 31 this season ranking him 34th in the runs aggregate. 34th. Is this the future?
Ah, that well-trodden old-timer institution of demanding they pick you through weight of runs.
Jamie Siddons, Brad Hodge, Stuart Law, Daren Lehmann, Martin Love, Jamie Cox, even Chris Rogers. They’d all be tickled pink at the Marsh selection, I’m sure.
Three weeks ago, Argus told the Sydney Morning Herald, “…I think the big issue will be succession planning, how they do that. Sporting teams, no matter who they are, aren’t real good at that. Nor are corporations I might add.”
Australian cricket still aren’t, Don.
The Australian Test team clearly made some giant strides over the course of this magnificent summer but can it be just as quickly undone with a poor showing in South Africa? What did Mickey Arthur say in October last year?
“If they lose this Test series there is going to be a lot of questions asked. I think James Sutherland, I think Pat Howard, I think Michael Clarke … I think some serious heads could roll if Australia don’t win this Test series.”
My Argus.
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