Australia are slowly improving overseas

Cant remember where I saw it chris but it was confirmed on fox sports shortly after your message as well http://www.foxsports.com.au/cricket/australia/cricket-australia-tour-of-bangladesh-dates-schedule-world-test-championship-series-confirmed-for-june-and-july/news-story/f0511266653a51c551b464ceacd6d2fa

Where did you see that? Cricket Australia's website still has no fixtures between NZ ODI in March and T20 WC in October. Can't find anything on any sort of semi-official site that has any real details on it. Looks like Wikipaedia is saying June, but I wouldn't go off that. So would be curious to see if there's anywhere official that something like that has been announced.

Looks like the bangladesh test/s have just been moved to june/july, great news in a way to get a testing series in over next winter

Yeah, fair enough – Carey couldn’t have been any worse than the openers. They could have even opened with Wade (similar to Warner, but at least he was in form) and Khawaja, and put Carey down in the middle order.

Agree totally re Kimbo - that 100 on an evil MCG pitch against the Windies was one of the great innings. I also loved his performances in the Centenary Test in England. 'Golden Boy' is a really good book on Hughes, I think. Doesn't shy away from some negatives but also shows what a poisonous place the WA and Oz dressing room was in the aftermath of Packer's victory. Wonderful talents that they were, the Chappells, Marsh, Lillee also did a lot of damage to Oz cricket (and I say that as someone that supported cricketers taking action to get decent wages).

Remember the Intermediate White Sail Stands at the AO? Ian and Greg, the little joiner was Trev.

I have always felt sorry for Kim Hughes. In a different era he may have had a far more successful test career. Debuted for his country during the WSC crisis and took 5 tests to average above 15. Played some incredible innings, none better than his 100* on day 1 of the ’81 Boxing Day test, against the mighty West indies pace attack. Quick on his feet to the spinners and an impulsive hooker of the short ball, Hughes was most entertaining to watch, not unlike Dougie Walters. The treatment he received from some senior Australian greats in his later career was atrocious and those involved should still be ashamed of their actions. Somewhere between Hughes’ early tests and the betrayal of his last tests, he was a good enough batsmen to, at times, make both GS Chappell and AR Border look like they were struggling and I regard them both incredibly highly.

I expect John Dyson may be the only Aussie pleased with Warner's recent away ashes series. He no longer has the lowest away Ashes series return for an Australian opener.

yep and carey looks a bit similar if he can step up to the red ball consistently, performs when pressure is on solid technique

Kim Hughes as well

There’s a book called The Establishment Boys on the guys who played for Australia during WSC. Interesting and sad at the same time. Kim Hughes became my boyhood hero after watching him in the 1978-79 Ashes but other favorites were Kevin Wright, Craig Serjeant and Yallop. Cosier actually said that he was in the Aussie Test team for around 15 Tests before WSC and was averaging over 40.. yet he wasn’t considered good enough while Trevor Chappell was! Yallop was told he had to bat at number 3 by the Chappells on his debut as they wanted McCosker and not him.. so he had to bat there!

Good ideas chris but unfortunately it seems t20 just takes precedence now outside of the the traditional summer slots, it just provides way lest time for tests but the popularity of then big bash commercially and then t20 world cup next year make it difficult to ramp up more test matches as other countries now look to more t20 and one days in their line up. Perhaps one of the real questions is do one day internationals matter any more ? or could the t20 game be turned in to t25 or t30 and leave it at that so test cricket can flourish again on schedules. Im also not sure I like this 2 and 3 test split up with pakistan and sth africa nowadays would be good to return to 5 tests against one team each summer but it seems they do anything to mix it up for commercial purposes. With the late scheduling you propose , I think you’d run in to huge problems moving the boxing day test, the new years test at scg as they are such permanent fixtures and traditionals in the calendar in both cities so not sure they can move around the schedules so much. the public backlash would be huge given the tradition and timing for example with holidays boxing day is immovable in melbourne for the time being .

We start our world test championship with a 2 test series in India in November. Expecting nothing less than a 2-0 India win but we have sent an u23 team to tour India right now to prepare for the series. Fingers crossed that works a little bit in our favour

Didn't know about Chappell and blocking Cosier. Cosier, like so many 'failures' might have done more in a different set up? My favourite Wood memory is his century against a genuinely frightening West Indies in the 1988-89 series but he was a fine player and his opening partnership with Laird provided some rare stability at the very top in a period when our 3 and 4 were often coming in very early indeed. John Dyson was another who emerged from the searing experience of the late 1970's with strong performances in the early 1980's.

It could also be an option for playing other test nations who share the same summer as us. Obviously playing nations like South Africa and NZ they prefer to play them in the major centres, but it does mean always having someone give up their summer, or cramming in tests at the start or end of the summer. Maybe that's the way to play a 5 test series against SA. Play the first three tests at major venues right at the end of Summer (right into March) and then have the last two tests in April in Cairns and Darwin. I doubt it will ever happen. But utilizing those venues more to get some more home test cricket in I think would be good.

The bowling plan has been smarter as well. We have always tried to blast sides out and it hasn't worked particularly well in England. But where-as every series we'de normally have a quick break down, the whole lot got through this time with Cummins playing all five tests. With the promising Jhye Richardson due back there are enough quicks to get us through the summer. But there is no-one close to Nathan Lyon. Only Smith, Labauschagne and Burns stayed in regularly of the batsman, none of them copybook batsman, meaning the traditional style of batting (used by everyone else) didn't work to well most of the time.

A batsman was fine particularly 5th test , we needed anyone with good performances in england who were proximity , anyone but the openers who have clocked in as the worst in one series in 120 years of test history . The two candidates to be chosen were out of khawaja, head, carey and at a push bancroft as they were all local for a 3 day turn around and ready to go and three of them were in better form

Cose was test standard. He still cannot believe Chappelli blocked him from WSC. Woody did good. On his day he was fantastic.

That I can agree with. And yes, it's a shame that Bangladesh cricket is in such a state right now! I'd love to see them playing more tests against the top nations.

I think Laubuchagne is the perfect example of what selectors should be looking for. Consistent scorer with a solid technique and most importantly someone who performs when the pressure is on.