Echoes of 1985-86: The blessing of a forced rebuild

The mixed fortunes of the Australian men’s Test team thus far this summer have simultaneously frustrated, excited, disappointed and offered hope to fans across the country.

There are echoes of another summer when the Indian team visited these shores – the six Tests of 1985-86, when another rebuild commenced, fortunes were mixed, and diamonds were made.

Fans old enough to remember will recall the events of the few years leading up to that particular summer and the summer of cricket itself, with a sense that some of the hope they have felt throughout 2018-19 is justified and does indeed point to happier and more consistent times to follow.

To understand the parallels, a short history of the already well-documented mid 1980s in Australian cricket is essential.

The retirement of the team’s three most senior players after the 1982-83 tour by Pakistan was followed by dual series against the all-conquering West Indies, who frankly decimated Australia both on and off the field.

Kim Hughes famously resigned the captaincy and several hopefuls were blooded to join more experienced campaigners like Graeme Wood and Andrew Hilditch in arresting the alarming slump in the team’s performance.

The fact that Australia was playing one the greatest sides ever assembled matter little. Then, as now, the public demanded results.

A win in spin-friendly Sydney restored a measure of pride but some of the youngsters seemingly suffered setbacks in their development, at the hands of a brutal pace attack and aggressive, classy batting that offered no identifiable weakness.

Still, there were positives for the hopeful to dwell on. Kepler Wessels was Australia’s outstanding batsman for the series averaging 56 and passing 50 five times including a hundred. Border was a rock, and now captain after Hughes’ storied demise.

Although modest in the home series, he had been colossal away, and on reflection, it was at this time that he was truly beginning to cement his place in the pantheon of the greats.

The best of the youngsters looked to be the Tasmanian pioneer David Boon, with a solitary half century in the series belying the grit and character he showed in repelling some fearsome pace bowling.

Bowling was headed by Geoff Lawson, then at the peak of his powers. However the debut of a fast and raw red-head from Queensland bode well – a young Craig McDermott with ten wickets from his two appearances at the end of the series.

What followed had been rumoured for some time, yet it hit Australian cricket with similar force to the sandpaper scandal.

The Rebel Tours of South Africa sucked away both weathered veterans used to the rigours of Test cricket, and promising youngsters who were in the plans for the next wave of tours and challenges.

This was on a scale far greater than the exile of three current Test players, and differed also in that the best remained available to the Test selectors – Border, and arguably Boon and McDermott representing the cream of the crop of youngsters. Steve Smith and Dave Warner are unquestionably the two most accomplished batsmen in these times.

Australian cricketer Allan Border. (Photo by Adrian Murrell/Getty Images)

A predictably disastrous 1985 Ashes tour followed, with landslide victories by England in the final two tests giving them a 3-1 series win.

Australia was at the crossroads, and young players who were picked for the subsequent twin home series against New Zealand and then India were often selected purely on potential. This was quite simply a matter of necessity. They were fit, available, and showed promise at state level, some more than others.

The parallel with Australia’s current Test men’s batting team cannot be denied.

One year ago, could anyone have conceived that five of the top six who completed the Ashes Series at Sydney would be out of the side, with the remaining batsman arguably under the most pressure to retain his place?

This has gifted debut opportunities to Marnus Labuschagne and Travis Head in the UAE, Marcus Harris, and Kurtis Patterson. Others have been granted another opportunity to press their claims for permanency – Joe Burns, Matt Renshaw, Aaron Finch and yes, Mitchell Marsh.

These are opportunities that may have been much longer coming, or indeed, may not have come at all. The young Renshaw waits in the wings, as does Will Pucovski, with time very much their friend.

In 1985/86, the void left by retirements and rebel tours became a chasm when the talented and reliable Kepler Wessels retired from Australian cricket after the first home Test of the summer against New Zealand. He was the only Australian to offer much resistance to the wiles of the magnificent Richard Hadlee in the first innings, when he offered 70 as Hadlee took an incredible nine for 52.

Over the course of the six Tests that summer, the vacancies in the side were filled by young hopefuls from across the states. The feeling of most fans was similar to now, we’ve heard the names, mostly, but who is this team?

Some of the names who debuted in that largely nondescript summer of tests include Geoff Marsh, Bruce Reid, Merv Hughes, Robbie Kerr, and the gifted all-rounder with the hard-edged but not yet granite mind from Panania in suburban Sydney – Steve Waugh.

Steve Waugh owns an all-time classic Ashes moment. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)

Also featuring in the tests and trying to secure their respective futures in the side were Boon, McDermott, Greg Ritchie, Simon O’Donnell, and the charismatic all-rounder Greg Matthews. The exciting thing about watching this side was that no one knew who would perform and go on to become a fixture in the side, or something even greater, or who would crumble in the furnace of the Test arena.

We watch the 2018-19 summer unfold with one Test remaining, wondering similarly, whether this crop of youngsters will produce a Steve Waugh, a David Boon, or a Craig McDermott?

We wonder whether one or more of this group will be a Simon O’Donnell, a great talent who just couldn’t nail it at Test level but became one of the more entertaining and successful one day international players of his generation.

We hope for the emergence of the Matthews, Hughes, Marsh types – consistent contributors who we expect to combine with those closer to the all-time best category like the banished captain and possibly a fit Pat Cummins, to form the nucleus of future success.

On the subject of Cummins, the leadership vacuum has no doubt been a positive. As in the comparative era when Border’s performances rose and rose with more responsibility and seniority, we see Cummins now an emerging leader in both deed and title – similarly sparked by the absence of more established leaders.

As Boon’s toughness and grit grew out of these fledgling times and became legendary, we wonder if we may be seeing the beginnings of something in Travis Head. Like Boon, he is at times unfashionable, but consistency displays the type of character that teams can build around.

Marsh and Hughes became quintessential team men, whose performances were consistent and occasionally brilliant as the team became more and more successful in the years that followed. Kerr never neared the heights predicted, as will inevitably happen to one or more of the current hopefuls.

He was either discarded too soon by selectors or not cut out for the rigours of Test cricket, although two tests could hardly be a fair benchmark by which to judge. If it was the former, this is surely a cautionary tale for the present selectors, for whom the task of determining which players deserve an extended run looms large on the to-do list attached to their national duty.

The discarding of Kerr all those years ago was Marsh’s opportunity and ironically, he grasped it in a way that neither of his unquestionably talented offspring have been able. With Boon, he became the bedrock on which the newly reliable batting order was built.

There is a collective hope that in Labuschagne and now perhaps Jhye Richardson, we may have unearthed players with the skill and character to mirror or exceed the careers of these type of players.

Marnus Labuschagne of Australia celebrates after reaching his half century (Photo by Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)

Richardson’s debut performance was a high point of the summer, bringing hope that the seemingly endless production line of quality quicks has produced yet another, albeit in markedly different form to his present compatriots.

The well-known history of Waugh is the quintessential case in point for persisting with exceptional talent until they adapt to Test cricket.

Again, there will be a parallel talent from the present group of youngsters, where selectors will need to show a patience that they have either chosen not to, or not had to, since the 80s era.

There are of course some differences between the eras. The superstar of the early Border side was Border, and he was there throughout. Notably in 2019, we have the superstar to return, and his former vice-captain also waiting for the expiration of his ban, with his 21 Test hundreds and 29 Test 50’s in a bulging resume.

When they are back, and when Josh Hazlewood returns from injury, Australia suddenly had a new found strength that may not have been as developed as it was if not for the dire events in South Africa.

Suddenly, competition for places will be something resembling fierce.

Youngsters, either in terms of their Test cricket experience or their birth certificate, or both, will be jostling for the remaining positions in the batting order. They will be just that little bit hardened, and that little bit hungrier, for the opportunities they have had as a result of the bans.

The likes of Cummins, Hazlewood, Paine, and perhaps a surviving Khawaja, will be comparative veterans, aged as men and cricketers by what they have endured. From both of these camps, some will emerge as diamonds, like the best of their 80s forefathers.

Others will become instant selections who are in the team for many years, again in parallel to the consistent contributors who debuted in 198five-eighth6.

That side really began an ascendancy towards sustained world domination with the famous 4-0 Ashes win in England in 1989. That is marked as the climax of the rebuilding phase, and was the platform for the timeless era that followed.

There is a very compelling argument that the rebuilding year since March 2018 will strengthen Australian men’s Test team simply by the opportunities it created.

It is not suggested that Australia will go on to dominate the world in the short or even medium term, like the team of the 1990’s and early 2000s.

However it is clear that among Harris, Labuschagne, Head, Patterson, Richardson, and Renshaw, there are cricketers who will have long and successful Test careers alongside Smith, Cummins, Hazlewood, Paine, Lyon, and Starc.

This can only bode well for the competitiveness of the team in coming years, and the echoes of the present season with the summer of 198five-eighth6 will become louder with every one of this group who becomes an established Test player.