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Opinion

The silent killer of Aussie cricket

30th December, 2020
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30th December, 2020
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The article comes after the debacle at the G – but is in no way a heated reaction or panic response.

This is what has been happening for last few years and remarkably no one holds the “Silent killer” accountable for all the debacle.

I am talking about Trevor Hohns – the NSP chairman. The bloke debuted for Australia at the age of 34 and went on to play seven Tests for Australia. He was the chairman of selectors during Australia’s domination era and then again returned to the NSP in 2016.

Hohns has been in my view undoubtedly one of the strongest reasons that Australia is not dominating the cricket world again despite having Steve Smith, Marnus Labuschagne and Dave Warner in their ranks – and possessing the best attack in the world.

There are few points that Hohns has to be accountable for.

1. Reluctance to blood youngsters
Does the fact that he debuted 30+ have something to do with this? The chairman of selectors has been mighty hesitant to blood in youngsters.

Usman Khawajas, Shaun Marshes, Matt Wades and Peter Siddles have dominated the selection. Even when people like Peter Handscomb, Matt Renshaw and Hilton Cartwright have been selected, you feel that they were not totally supported and the patience shown with them was far less than few of the”pool” players mentioned above.

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If there is no talent banging the door down (and i believe there is some talent that the sectors have failed to notice), then you bring in whatever talent you have, keep them in the test frame and nurture them into better players

Paine has been a good captain but it should have been the likes of Alex Carey, Sam Whiteman, Jimmy Peirson or someone of that sort who should have been selected at that point of time. Now that Will Pucovski and Cameron Green have brought the house down with Shield runs – still they are lucky that Hohns selected them.

2. Failure to identify the right batsman
You got to have some sort of a technique (unless you are Smith) or a terrific eye to succeed at international level. The selectors have not given enough thought to this and selected some of the “golden prospects” like Travis Head, Joe Burns, Mitch Marsh and Marcus Harris.

Also think that veterans like Shaun Marsh and Khawaja also suffered from the same fate due to lack of a good solid technique.

Why did Marnus succeed at this level – he has a good sound technique. It is simple. The weaker hand-eye players have been found out at the top level and despite this fact being very evident some are still part of the test team.

3. No succession plans
Hohns is repeating the same great mistake he did last time. This is perhaps his greatest disservice to Aussie cricket.

He never planned a succession plan when Australia were dominating. When the greats left, others were not battle ready and the domination could not continue. Same thing is repeating now – where are the successors to Pat Cummins, Mitch Starc and James Pattinson.

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I find Jhye Richardson and Riley Meredith to be extremely potent and both are young. But they are nowhere near the international setup currently (admitted Jhye suffered an injury).

These two along with few others like Xavier Bartlett should at least have a crack in the ODIs and T20s to get them acquainted to the requirements at the top level.

But Hohns will go back to Andrew Tye and Kane Richardson when the big three are to be rested. Complacency is the characteristic observed in both the Hohns stints.

Similarly, soon Warner will need to be replaced and who is the one they are eyeing. Or are they eyeing anyone at all? Ridiculous theories like incumbency are put forth – those are ok when you have incumbents with solid and proven records not in today’s era.

So when will all this silent killing end? Why should the team suffer when wrong players are selected in the first place?

Hohns got a contract extension this year – hope he will not be there after that extension allowing a fresher mindset guy to come in and join Bailey and Langer at the NSP.

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