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Australia's phenomenal cricket talent from the '90s highlights the present dearth of talent

One of the all-time greats, Ricky Ponting couldn't crack the top team in the '90s. (AFP PHOTO / Greg WOOD)
Roar Guru
3rd November, 2017
10

In the early 1990s, the World Series was an integral part of summer and Australia played two teams – often the national team and an A side facing each other in the finals.

In the 1994-95 tri-series, against England and Zimbabwe, Paul Reiffel opened the bowling with the big Merv Hughes for the Aussies, Gavin Robertson bowled spin, while Michael Slater had a very good series opening the batting.

But it was Australia’s A team that really sums up the country’s strength at the time, with Greg Blewett, Darren Lehman, Justin Langer, Michael Bevan, Ricky Ponting, Matthew Hayden and Damien Martyn all featuring.

It was phenomenal to see two world-class teams from the same country in the same competition – no wonder the Aussies dominated world cricket for about 15 years.

The type of players who the Aussies had to leave out in the ’90s included Stuart McGill, who was extremely unlucky to have been from the same era as legendary Shane Warne – he would have walked into the current Aussie Test side. Likewise, Stuart Law and Darren Lehman would have no trouble making the present Test and ODI sides.

Somehow, Australia has struggled to keep the talent flowing since the retirement of legends such as Glenn McGrath, Shane Warne, and Adam Gilchrist. Sure, these players are hard to replace, but the talent in the current generation pales to the one before it.

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