The loneliness of the long-distance selector

Rod Marsh is no stranger to pressure. He spent many years having the likes of Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thomson hurl balls at him at high speeds, amusing themselves by seeing how often they could bounce it over his head.

He faced some of the greatest bowlers of all time armed with nothing but a bat and a moustache. And he survived a particularly tense period in 1981 when it seemed as if he had wasted his money on a bet at Headingley.

But has the man they call ‘Bacchus’ – due to his love of wine and habit of travelling in a chariot drawn by panthers – ever faced pressure as intense as that which besets him now?

As chairman of selectors, Marsh probably wishes he was still on the field, leaping like a salmon for spectacular catches and telling Trevor Chappell to bowl overarm.

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The trouble with being a selector is that you have a job that everyone else thinks they would be better at. This isn’t the case when you’re a player: very few of the cricket-watching public actually think they’d score more runs or take more wickets than the men in the middle; but pretty much one hundred per cent of them are convinced they’d pick a better team. I know I am – the team I’d pick would be absolutely perfect. And the fact that I’m right about that doesn’t mean I can’t sympathise with Rod Marsh’s problem.

Because when it comes down to it, Marsh is just an ordinary Aussie bloke trying to do his best. Is his best good enough? Probably not, but then whose is?

So he left Usman Khawaja out. So what? Other selectors have left Khawaja out too. In fact there is a rich tradition in Australian cricket of selectors leaving Khawaja out, that goes back to before the First World War.

And is there any guarantee that Usman Khawaja would’ve made a difference to the team? Of course not. There are no guarantees in cricket. There’s no guarantee that recalling Greg Dyer to the side wouldn’t strengthen Australia’s chances at the T20, either – is this something the selectors should consider? Yes it is: it’s either that or teach Cameron Bancroft to catch.

But as a selector, it’s not enough to just go ‘with the gut’ – it’s the selector’s responsibility to weigh all the issues objectively and come to a reasoned decision based on all the relevant evidence. Anyone can just say, “here is an in-form batsman, let’s have him”. It takes a professional selector to say, “here is an in-form batsman, but I’m not sure that fits with our brand.”

And branding is important in the 21st century. Currently the Australian cricket team’s brand is ‘men whose name is Marsh’, and that seems fair enough. As a Marsh himself, Bacchus knows how valuable a Marsh can be to an Australian team. The Ashes-winning sides of 1974-75 and 1989 both had at least one Marsh in them, and they laid waste to the opposition in supreme fashion. On the other hand, neither of those teams had any Khawajas at all. Can you blame a selector, in light of that history, for being a little risk-averse?

When looked at logically like this, all Marsh’s decisions make a lot more sense. Shaun Tait in the T20s? Seems risky, yes. Seems like picking a guy well past his prime. Seems like there was literally no reason to do it. And yet when you examine the facts, they include this: Shaun Tait bowls very fast. And anyone who has played Under-12s knows: fast bowling is really hard to play. On the other hand, slow bowling is a lot easier to play, because you’ve got more time, so it’s best to keep slow bowlers out of the team as much as possible. This isn’t rocket science.

And it’s not like Marsh is inflexible. After all, Khawaja is in the team now, isn’t he? As long as there are enough injuries and catastrophic thrashings, everyone eventually gets a fair go. Khawaja will get his chance to prove he belongs in the team, and once he’s blown that chance, he’ll be out again, as is only right. And if he grabs that chance with both hands, he’ll get another chance, and once he’s blown that chance he’ll be out again. It’s a pretty methodical system.

I guess what I’m saying is, we’re all human, probably. We all make mistakes. Even legendary wicketkeepers. Let’s have a bit of sympathy and a bit of compassion for a man who is feeling the heat so intensely right now. Let’s consider just how hard it is to be in a position where no matter what you do, no matter what direction you jump, someone, somewhere, will say you should have picked Peter Siddle instead.

And think, there but for the grace of God go I.