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That the national selectors are biased towards New South Wales players is one of the great furphies of Australian cricket.
Why is it continually perpetuated? Do cricket followers really subscribe to this theory, or is it merely raised to inflame debates and rile up NSW fans?
Let’s consider whether there is any weight whatsoever behind the myth. There have been some NSW players in recent years given opportunities in the national side which they appeared not to have earned.
Young NSW quick Josh Hazlewood was just 19 years old when he made his ODI debut against England almost four years ago. His selection came on the back of nothing more than a handful of reasonable performances at state level.
He was then selected ahead of numerous other far more accomplished quicks to be 12th man for the Aussies in the third Test against South Africa at the WACA in late 2012.
Blues all-rounder Moises Henriques, too, was lucky to get an ODI call up in 2009 as a raw 22-year-old. It could also be argued he was fortunate to be handed a Test spot against India last year, although that seemed largely due to Australia’s obsession with unearthing all-rounders.
Teenage quick Pat Cummins had played a mere handful of Sheffield Shield games when he was granted a baggy green cap, prompting the usual claims of NSW favouritism.
Granted, it was an extraordinary rise that Cummins had completed in making his Test debut. But his astounding efforts in that match, against superpowers South Africa, confirmed the selectors had made an inspired rather than biased selection.
In the meantime, there have been plenty of players from other states who were just as undeserving of their places in national sides.
There was the shock Test recall of WA batsman Shaun Marsh this year despite the 30-year-old having made just 692 runs at 21 in first-class cricket since the start of the 2011-12 season.
Even more staggering than Marsh’s selection was last year’s decision to ditch incumbent Test spinner Nathan Lyon, who had taken nine wickets in his last Test, in favour of Marsh’s WA teammate Ashton Agar.
When Agar debuted in the first Ashes Test in England last year it was only six months after his first-class debut.
To further make the case for favouritism towards Warriors’ players, not that I believe it exists, I would point you towards another left-arm spinner in Michael Beer. The innocuous tweaker was gifted a baggy green in the 2010-11 Ashes less than three months after playing his first Shield match.
There have also been vehement claims of undeserved Australian debuts levelled at the likes of George Bailey, Glenn Maxwell, Nathan Lyon, John Hastings, Rob Quiney, Bryce McGain, Mitch Marsh, Clint McKay, James Pattinson and Peter George, none of whom played for NSW at the time.
Meanwhile, there are numerous Blues’ players who could justifiably claim to have been hard done by in terms of national selection, and none more so than Blues’ spinner Steven O’Keefe. The left-armer has been the standout slow bowler in the Sheffield Shield for years, yet he has been continuously ignored by the Australian selectors.
His snubbing has been so pronounced that he has rarely even made Australia A teams. O’Keefe’s former captain at NSW, Simon Katich, was treated with similar contempt by the Australian selectors in 2010.
Amid a rebuilding period for the Test line-up, Katich had been a rock at the top of the order. It mattered little as he was flung atop the scrap heap for next to no reason, other than the fact he was 35 years old.
Katich’s final Test was against England in Adelaide in December 2010. In that same match his NSW teammate Doug Bollinger struggled as the England batsmen dominated.
Despite having had a brilliant Test career to that point he was banished, and has never played another Test. Bollinger is one more recent example of a NSW player being dealt with harshly by the national selection panel.
So where does this leave us Roarers? Have I made a strong enough case to declare the NSW bias theory a myth?