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Chadd Sayers deserves better than his South African snub

23rd January, 2018
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Chadd Sayers looks set to finally get a go in the Test side. (Photo by Daniel Kalisz/Getty Images)
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23rd January, 2018
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With his latest omission from the Test squad to tour South Africa, Chadd Sayers looks set to join the list of players to have dominated the Sheffield Shield without receiving their baggy green dues.

Only two players have produced more prolific Shield seasons with the ball than Sayers’ 62-wicket effort in 2016-17. His wicket-taking feats haven’t been as impressive in the current season, but 17 scalps at 25 is hardly a poor return from four matches.

Those figures should have assured him of a place on the plane to South Africa although, as Sayers himself admitted yesterday, the likelihood of him playing was pretty low.

Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins are as good a pace trio as you’ll find in the Test arena at the moment (although those credentials will be sorely tested by their South African counterparts in March and April) and there can be few complaints about Jackson Bird’s current standing as the next-best Australian quick.

Bird is, after all, the leading Sheffield Shield wicket-taker this season, and it would be an unfairly harsh critic who demotes him based on one wicketless performance on an MCG pitch so lifeless it now stands as the worst to have Test cricket played on it in Australia.

There’s still a compelling case to bring Sayers to South Africa in spite of that.

He’d be a better replacement for any of the other quicks should two of them be hit by the injury bug. While the three first-choice pacemen were blessed with an unusually clean bill of health over the Ashes, all have had injury problems in the past, particularly Cummins and Starc.

Chadd Sayers at a press conference

(Photo by Daniel Kalisz/Getty Images)

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It’s a predicament we’d prefer not to consider, but it’s hardly the most unlikely of scenarios, and one which should be planned for.

Assuming those two injuries don’t eventuate, Jhye Richardson’s selection does, admittedly, make a bit of sense. With little chance of playing behind the four other quicks, and at just 21 years old, he’s there to learn and develop. For one of the most exciting young prospects in the country, that’s a relatively logical argument. (That said, there’s another equally logical one which states he’d learn just as much by, you know, actually playing cricket for Western Australia instead of running the drinks in South Africa).

At any rate, there’s no excuse for the selectors not having the courtesy to call Sayers and let him know of his omission, leaving him to instead find out the news via social media.

Overlooking a player whose credentials and bowling style suggest he’d prosper on South African pitches is one thing. Trevor Hohns and the rest of the selectors have plenty of credits in the bank after the Ashes, and they’re never going to be able to pick a squad which makes everyone happy. So be it.

But not having the decency to call that player, who was included in the squad for the first two Tests of the summer, is rubbish form.

Sayers was rightfully disappointed yesterday, telling 5AA that not being told over the phone was “hard to take.”

“I’d like to know where I stand in Cricket Australia’s eyes and where I can get in their side…

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“I’m just disappointed and just want some clarity.”

He’s not alone – plenty of Australian fans would be keen to hear what more he had to do to be picked.

Sayers will no doubt come into the South Australian Shield side when the competition resumes and take a stack of wickets, in the process confirming he’s probably a bit too good for the first-class batsmen he’s so regularly pitted against, only to probably be overlooked when the next Test tour comes around.

The least he can hope for is to be told by Trevor, not Twitter, next time.

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