Australia have picked their strongest possible white-ball squads for this month’s six-match tour of South Africa in an effort to break their run of nightmare tours of that country.
Australia disintegrated during their last two tours of South Africa, with those fiascos having major impacts on the team.
The fallout from the last tour is still reverberating through Australian cricket. No single incident in the modern era has damaged the game in Australia like the ball-tampering scandal that saw long playing bans handed to Steve Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft.
(AAP Image/Brendan Esposito)
It shouldn’t be forgotten that the previous tour of South Africa also scarred the Australian team and set them on a negative path.
In late 2016, Australia suffered their first-ever 5-0 whitewash in an ODI series after sending a woefully inadequate team to South Africa.
Australia paid no respect to the ODI format at this time, regularly fielding second-string teams, and it set them back in a big way. This ridiculously casual approach to ODIs was summed up not long after that embarrassment in South Africa by the selection of Sam Heazlett to make his ODI debut before he had even played a single one-day game for Queensland.
That same year Hilton Cartwright was picked to open the batting in two ODIs in India despite not being an opener for Western Australia and having a terrible List A record, with a batting average in the low 20s.
Australia’s refusal to play anything close to their best ODI team across 2016, 2017 and 2018 saw them enter their deepest form slump since the 1980s. From the start of that disastrous tour of South Africa in 2016 through to the end of 2018, Australia’s win-loss record in ODIs was horrendous at 10-24.
The rot started in September 2016 when Australia went to South Africa with what I wrote at the time was their “weakest ever ODI pace line-up.”
Joe Mennie, Daniel Worrall and Chris Tremain were bizarre picks to make their ODI debuts in that series having taken just ten wickets at 49 combined in the previous domestic one-day cup. Together, they owned just 53 wickets at 37 across their entire List A careers. Not one of them deserved to be remotely close to ODI selection.
Yet they were replacing star bowlers Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and James Faulkner, who were sitting out the tour.
(Action Foto Sport/NurPhoto)
That unproven pace trio were supported by Scott Boland, another player randomly thrown into the ODI side and who had struggled badly to that point, averaging 57 with the ball from his ten matches for Australia.
None of those four quicks – Mennie, Worrall, Tremain and Boland – were in the ten best one-day bowlers in the country at the time yet somehow here they were all representing Australia in South Africa.
It was no surprise when they flopped. Together, that Aussie pace quartet took 15 wickets at 46 against South Africa while conceding a whopping 6.7 runs per over.
The South Africa batsmen run amok as the Proteas humiliated Australia 5-0. In the first ODI at Centurion, Australia posted a solid total of 294 only for South Africa to mow that down with nearly 14 overs to spare. Next up in Johannesburg, the Proteas piled up a monster total of 361, which was well beyond Australia.
Then in Durban, Australia bounced back to make a mammoth total of 371. Yet South Africa proceeded to chase that down, too, breaking the spirit of the Aussies, who were tame in the final two matches.
That crushing series loss seemed to suck the confidence out of the Aussie team, who looked very flat as they started the 2016-17 home summer with two thumping Test losses against South Africa.
Australia flirted with their form on that ODI tour of South Africa and it backfired. Eighteen months later they over-corrected, with some players willing to go to any lengths to win in South Africa.
Now Australia return to South Africa with a full-strength line-up and an improved team culture.
This may seem like a random white-ball tour shoehorned into the international schedule, but for Australia, it is a chance for them to begin healing some of the mental scars inflicted on their last two tours of South Africa.
Insult_2_Injury
Roar Rookie
No discussions that I'm aware of regarding what the teams said to each other, the match referee does that, but the CA cuddle squad investigates every utterance from it's employees and measures them against their code. Similarly they review crowd behaviour towards all players and officials and particular venues and meet venue staff for chamges and direction where they deem necessary. It's over the top, but it's pro active. CSA isn't.
anon
Roar Pro
Yees let's hoop we over come aww Sed Efrican hoodoo
Just Nuisance
Roar Rookie
Whose name is on the trophy..? I’ll give you a clue… It’s not*
Marty
Roar Rookie
Did the ECB put conditions on the last Ashes tour after the Australian coach had gone on radio and called Broad a cheat and encouraged spectators to send him home in tears before before the previous tour? Swings and roundabouts mate.
Just Nuisance
Roar Rookie
Australia had no choice but to pick the strongest possible team. It's a real must win series. They are playing a weakened SA team in transition.. All the pressure is on them.. It's a classic Catch 22 scenario. Beat SA and they will not receive the plaudits because of said circumstances. Lose and its going to be genuine mud on the face.
Just Nuisance
Roar Rookie
There is a school of thought on social media that SA Cricket now going the route of Zimbabwe. What???... SA Cricket have strong school systems, an excellent although flawed development program me, an established and popular club system. Solid domestic structures and no shortage of sponsors. The game is increasing its support base rapidly. We simply dont have the playing numbers of Aus, England, India etc so when we lose a plethora of stars in a short space of time there will always be a transition and fall off of standards. No team in World cricket would not have battled in similar circumstances. But SA will be back.
Just Nuisance
Roar Rookie
Rubbish. I’ve said this before. Over half a million spectators clicked the turnstiles against England. 1 minor incident involving surprise surprise Ben Stokes. Anyone else and it would not even have made the news. Suddenly we must start giving assurances, employ extra security etc….. The overwhelming majority of spectators are those going with families, friends, work colleagues, kids to enjoy a day’s cricket. Some perspective please.
Garry
Guest
I spotted that ‘*’ and liked it. Forever *’ed in my opinion. I find it irritating that the English media never * that title.
Insult_2_Injury
Roar Rookie
Not sure where you've been since last time Australia played in SA, Brian, but even our Antarctic base gets regular communication now!
KenW
Guest
They both had a fair bit of success on the field too, despite incessant booing from the stands. Warner was on fire during the World Cup, Smith was incredible during the test series.
Brian
Guest
England are resting Stokes, Buttler, Archer & Wood. Australia are taking over a stronger side
qwetzen
Roar Rookie
Paul said: re Smith & Warner] "...and while they handled themselves extra well in England...". Just checking. I assume by "handled themselves extra well in England" you mean in a behavioural sense?
Brian
Guest
Oh please what has the crowd is SA actually done. Would you be happy for Kohli to have walked off when he was booed at the SCG
Tanmoy Kar
Guest
Though the South Africans have weakened considerably in the Test match scenario, losing the Series by 3-1 to England, they are still a strong side in ODIs beaten World Champion England in the first match.
Paul
Roar Guru
At this level, cricket is so much more about what's going through players minds and these series will be a very good test for Messers Smith & Warner in particular, as well as the rest of the squad. Both of these guys have only been back in big time cricket for under 12 months and while they handled themselves extra well in England, we can all be sure they'll cop another going over in South Africa. This makes winning both series even more important because crowd comments are almost irrelevant if the home sides getting a hiding. It also leaves Australia in a good place moving forward. The Tests side's done extra well, and although momentum in white ball cricket was slowed in the recent series in India,it wasn't stopped. A series loss in either format would certainly dent confidence, which can hardly be a good thing with the World Cup only a few months away.
Davros
Guest
Couple of points regarding mennie that year mennie was the leading odd wicket taker .. he made his Australian debut at the bullring and got pumped taking no wickets .. surprisingly given his later treatment .. they stuck with him for next odi where he took 3 fa not mennie taking amlas and duminy stumps to claim the best figures of any aus bowler on the tour .. next odd season he was equal first or second highest odd wicket taker .. got chucked to the wolves on debut at the bullring .. came back strong .. this was also on the back of a leading shied wicket taker The previous season and 2 5 fas v South Africa A in Australia making 50 with bat both times as well .. that’s y he got selected cause he took wickets and made runs
Dwanye
Roar Rookie
Hi Kopa. While I don’t think ya country needs or is way se to give 100% to ‘all’ tournaments, I don’t think a country should treat it as nothing. It’s opportunity to ‘blood’ new guys, rest the main ones. That few years from 2016 in odi, I wasn’t sure what C.A. was trying and I am often scratching head at the boards. Lol
qwetzen
Roar Rookie
It would have been Fair & Balanced if the OP had mentioned that the "bizarre" selections didn't get any support from some established 'stars' on that 2016 tour of RSA. Notably; Smith - 30.2 @ 90.0 and with Bailey, Finch, Marsh M, Wade & Head all under 30. With the ball; Zampa, the only frontline bowler to play all 5 games, having bowling stats of 3 @ 72.7 with a "whopping plus" SR of 6.84.
Insult_2_Injury
Roar Rookie
Has Cricket Australia laid out the safe working conditions expected for all player, to CSA? Crowd behaviour exhibited of late must start impacting on the host and their security. Any antisocial behaviour directed at players should result in removal, bans and charges. Some variant of that has to be a measurable condition for future tours.
Omnitrader
Roar Rookie
What did they do to the boundaries?