Why does Australia struggle to keep experienced players?

A problem that doesn’t get much discussion is the Australian cricket team’s struggle to retain experienced male players.

Look back to the glory days of 2006.

The team was packed with experienced, toughened campaigners: Ricky Pointing, Justin Langer, Matt Hayden, Glenn McGrath, Shane Warne, Adam Gilchrist, and Damien Martyn.

Some of the newer players were hardened through years on the domestic circuit, such as Michael Hussey.

When newbies like Stu Clark, Michael Clarke and Shane Watson came in, they were the exception rather than the rule, and could learn a lot of good habits from people who knew both their games and a lot about cricket.

But around a decade ago, we started having trouble keeping a core of senior players, and the team has suffered erratic form ever since (particularly overseas).

Now, it’s all very well to say “oh well, we had a bunch of exceptional players and it’s unrealistic to expect that to be repeated” and there is some truth to that, but there are also issues of form and off-field behaviour.

But in some cases it’s been due to a deliberate policy of excluding experienced players.

The first notable example was Brad Hodge, an excellent batsman (who could bowl a little too, aka The Most Important Thing in the World For Australian Selectors), who despite being in good form was dropped for Damien Martyn in 2006.

I understood this – Martyn was a better player than Hodge. I even got why the selectors chose Andrew Symonds over Hodge in 2006-07, because Symonds offered so much potential in terms of batting firepower, fielding and bowling – plus Hodge was still around the set up, later playing in the West Indies.

Where the selectors went wrong was in 2008, ignoring Hodge in favour of Shaun Marsh and Watto for the Indian tour, and ignoring him thereafter.

Hodge was a prime asset that they discarded, preferring youthful replacements who never quite matched his achievements.

Another example was Phil Jacques, who established himself as a quality international opener after Langer’s retirement but was out of international cricket within a few years.

Absolutely, Jacques had injury issues, but when he came back from them in 2009 there seemed no enthusiasm to bring him back to the international arena – the selectors went for Phil Hughes and Watson, both of whom had their moments, but didn’t do as well consistently as Jacques.

As with Hodge, after a time it was like Jacques simply ceased to exist. He had ‘old player’ smell, his passport presumably stamped ‘never to be picked for Australia again’.

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Then there was Simon Katich, one of Australia’s best batsmen over several years, who offered that all-important bowling option as a bonus, who was turfed as a result of the ‘bring in the youngsters’ policy of 2011.

It seemed a dumb decision at the time and now feels even dumber.

Michael Clarke writes in his memoirs he was told the selectors only wanted to have two veterans and there was no room for Hussey, Ponting and Katich – insane logic, quickly shown to be flawed when Ponting lost form and Hussey retired. But the selectors felt they couldn’t backtrack, because that would mean admitting they were wrong (because committing to a mistake is somehow preferable than trying to fix it). Maybe they also felt Clarke would be threatened by Katich’s presence.

Ed Cowan never quite consolidated his position in the Test team, even it was a bit yuck the way Darren Lehmann turfed him as soon as possible in 2013 – but it was an absurd mistake to consciously and deliberately try to force him out of the domestic set up last summer (and New South Wales paid the price).

Usman Khawaja finally established himself as a senior player in the side then the selectors went, “Sorry mate you can’t play in Asia.”

Peter Nevill could’ve been really established but he lost his spot on the basis of noise, and having to bat after Mitchell Marsh for most of his career. Australia was fortunate to replace him with Tim Paine, who has done very well, but they never found the people to replace Hodge, Katich and Jacques, and we need to stop being so arrogant to assume champions come by so easily.

This is never more true than in the case of spin bowlers.

While Australia always seems to have enough pacemen, spinners need more love and care, which they have absolutely failed to get over the past decade.

Nathan Hauritz surprised everyone with his Test successes, including himself, but he was discarded by an impatient selection panel for Michael Beer and Xavier Doherty. Maybe Hauritz would’ve bowled pies in 2010-11 but he had done the job for Australia recently well enough, and deserved another go – especially when Doherty and Beer weren’t banging down the door.

Steve O’Keefe’s superb domestic record, and decent Test one, has been consistently overlooked by selectors – even now. Bryce McGain got one Test, and it was a shocker, but couldn’t he have got a second go?

Stephen O’Keefe (AAP Image/Paul Miller)

And the thing is, when Australia brought in experienced players, it’s paid off in spades.

Chris Rogers and Adam Voges did wonderful things at Test level, and while George Bailey was not a barnstorming success, Australia seemed to win all the time when he was around.

They’ve also been rewarded when showing faith in some players: Nathan Lyon, once they stopped dropping him for Ashton Agar and Xavier Doherty, has been amazing.

In fairness, some things were not the selectors’ fault. They invested a lot of time and effort in Symonds, and he did come good, but when he should have consolidated as a senior player, he went off the rails and saw his career end prematurely.

No one seems to talk much about Marcus North but he did some great things at Test level and brought a lot to the party (good batting, useful bowler) but he went into a real form slump.

Voges was concussed badly when he might’ve had another year at international level (I say ‘might’ because I get the impression the selectors were after his blood).

Hughes, who I like to think would’ve come into his own by now (though you never know) tragically died. David Hussey seemed to have this incredible knack of being out of form at the precise moment one decent score would’ve got him in the team, then getting back in form the moment that opportunity passed (he should’ve been picked anyway, just on the basis of his average, but he really never could get a useful score at the right time).

Andrew McDonald got injured when he had a real chance of establishing himself in the Test side. Shane Watson was given countless opportunities and rewarded the selectors for a time but needed Katich batting at the other end more than people realised, and never became the player he was at ODI and domestic level.

Shaun Marsh should be an established senior player by now but people are still talking about him realising his potential. Mitchell Marsh has had five good Tests in a 28-Test career.

AAP Image/Dave Hunt

But the nobbling of senior players has happened too often for it not to have been a conscious decision.

The selectors seem to like prematurely picking young players, because they can claim credit if they are correct but if they are wrong, they can go ‘well, they’re only young and we’re rebuilding’. The media like them because it’s an exciting story – who didn’t enjoy the romance of Ashton Agar’s debut Test innings? Who didn’t ignore his bowling in the next Test? Coaches like them because again they can claim credit if they work out well – and also they are easier to boss around.

But the fact is Australian cricket suffered from the deliberate discarding of players like Hodge, Katich and Jacques in favour of the next hot thing. If next hot things are any good, they’ll make it to Test level soon enough – unless, of course, they have a funny technique or rub the coach up the wrong way or aren’t from West Australia and get turfed prematurely, like Pete Handscomb and Glenn Maxwell last summer.

If Australia want to be the best team in the world, we need to get the ego of coaches and selectors out of the way, embrace tough campaigners, not be afraid of strong personalities and alternate leaders in the dressing room, and show faith in the players picked.

Then, maybe, we’ll have that hardened core of champions to take the side to greatness – and a few more heads in the dressing room to say things like, “Maybe you should think twice about pulling out that sandpaper.”