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Australian cricket history is replete with players seemingly at the top of the game, who are generally ignored or unwanted by national selectors.
Sometimes this can be justified by the talent available with comparable credentials getting the nod. Sometimes it’s because of a perception that the player in question has flaws unsuited for long-term Test cricket.
But the reluctance to recognise the skills of one standout player over the past six or seven seasons begs an explanation from our present and recent past national Test selectors.
I’m of course referring to Stephen Norman John O’Keefe, NSW’s 30-year-old front-line slow left-arm orthodox spin bowler, also recognised as an all-rounder.
So what are the negatives regarding this player?
It’s hard to find and the best I’ve so far been able to gauge from Roar entries is that he’s unpopular, hardly what I would have thought should be a selection issue of any more than passing relevance.
Others say he doesn’t spin the ball enough, he’s too predictable, even that he bores batsmen into losing their wicket. But none of these reasons seem important enough when they are matched up against his performances, and this is where the question needs to be asked.
O’Keefe has been playing regularly with the NSW Sheffield Shield side consistently since about 2008. He’s actually become their primary wicket-taker on more than one occasion over a full a season. In fact, in the 2013-14 season he was the highest wicket-taker in the Shield, at 41.
Add to that his wicket taking and averages have remained consistent, even improving year by year. This year his average so far is about 21.5 runs per wicket.
But it’s the lack of opportunities to play more than one Test that is the standout dilemma when you consider whom Australia has chosen before him in the past half decade or so. All but Nathan Lyon have proved unsuccessful.
But check their first-class wicket taking averages:
Xavier Doherty: 42.58
Michael Beer: 40.37
Nathan Hauritz: 43.02
Beau Casson: 43.52
Bryce McGain: 35.48
Nathan Lyon: 37.58
Ashton Agar: 40.29
And then we have O’Keefe: 24.55
There are many who would argue the job of a spin bowler is to restrict the scoring – to offer support to the fast bowlers – by frustrating the batsmen into upping their scoring. But then that comes down to economy rate doesn’t it?
So what follows are the present aspirants’ first-class wicket taking averages followed by their economy rate:
Lyon: 37.58 – 3.15
Ahmed: 30.32 – 3.51
Agar: 40.29 – 3.51
Zampa: 51.24 – 4.15
Boyce: 51.08 – 3.74
Holland: 40.48 – 3.21
And O’Keefe: 24.55 – 2.53
What those facts are telling us is that O’Keefe is not only getting wickets far cheaper than other spin bowlers, but he is only allowing 2.53 runs per over, thereby restricting the batsmen far more than his competitors.
In fact when looking at some of the recent top first-class spin bowlers, O’Keefe is up there.
Shane Warne: 26.11 – 2.76
Stuart MacGill: 30.49 – 3.41
There will be many raising objections for many reasons no doubt over this article, but figures over a long period are fairly convincing evidence that O’Keefe deserves Test selection far more regularly than happens.
His first-class averages aren’t just better than other spin bowlers at this time, they are significantly better. And surely performances and outcomes far outweigh appearances and personality issues.
When you add that he is also an all-rounder with the best batting average of any of the specialist spin bowlers, at 28.64, surely it further emphasises that something untoward is occurring in that selection big house when Australia Test teams are announced.
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