Great article mate. I resemble that remark! At the risk of being flamed, let me attempt to defend my completely judgmental remarks! I like my Australian captains in the mould of AB and S. Waugh; tough, uncompromising and genuine leaders and men who inspired their whole team to achieve greatness to the point where any of their team mates would gladly step in front of the bullet without question if they even got a sideways glance from the captain. In all honesty, I just never got this feeling from Clarke. He outwardly appeared divisive (Katich… anyone? anyone?) and appeared to be more concerned with his hair product contract rather than the baggy green. As I said, I appreciate that I am/have been judgemental on someone I don’t even know. I also believe that the way he has carried himself in the last fortnight proves beyond reproach that he is the man to be leading our cricket team today. I have nothing but the utmost respect for his care of the Hughes family and the way on which he has undertaken his duties as Hughes best mate and the Australian cricket captain. The kind of inspirational leadership I’ve been seeking from him for years!!! (let the flaming begin!)

Where to start? Ill disciplined batting, woeful fielding, substandard bowling…Congrats to England, they thoroughly deserve the plaudits coming their way… but we have made them look good too. Michael Slater just stated on channel nine that he thought the current Australian team was the best 11 players in the country. Sorry, but I can’t cop that. Is he saying that our best crop of players can’t get within an innings of England? Call me arrogant, but what a load of shite. We have 11 players out there somewhere waiting to dish it up to these pommy blokes. It is irrefutable that it is time for change. I am not being negative, or a Ponting/Clarke basher, quite the opposite, for Aussie cricket to go forward, we must be positive and that involves tough decisions and change. The change needs to be from the top down. It does no good to blame the likes of Hughes and Smith, this series was lost months if not years before they were thrown into the deep end. Sutherland, Hilditch, Nielson and Ponting should all step down this week; No, they should step down this very afternoon. Clarke needs to go back to Sheffield Shield. We need to rebuild. We need to start now. The problem has been ignored for 18 months since exactly the same thing happened on English shores. Perhaps it was easier to ignore because it was over there. But it can no longer be ignored.
I’ll pose a question to you… if you were to pick a first 11 from these two squads, which Aussies would make the cut? On current form, surely it could only be Hussey and Haddin in for Collingwood and Prior.

isn’t it enough that they don’t even show it live, but rather on a 3-5 second delay so you are unable to listen to informed commentary on the ABC? Now they are just cutting it off mid over… I’m sure those anti-syphoning laws mention something about sports that are of national interest…. C’mon its the freakin ASHES!

goddamn channel nine! The best session of the summer sofar… tense exciting, challenging and they go the the news. take the cricket off them and give it back to the ABC. they only had to stay with it for 1 more minute to have the innings wrapped up. channel nine are a joke.

I don’t care if we win or lose now, I am just stoked that the Aussies are FINALLY showing some fight, some fire, some anger, some pump. They are giving it back to the pommies in spades, and if we do lose, at least we’ll go down swinging, not meakly, sooking via twitter accounts! Go you good things!

did someone say Adelaide?

Good preview mate… the east coast media is suggesting that if England retain the Ashes in Perth then Ricky is out the back door quicker than Simone Warne! I really hope that Smith makes his mark, and I think the selectors may well rely on his spin prowess and go with the 4 quicks leaving Beer on the bench. One thing is for sure, if we see a test similar to Adelaide, (or Radelaide as it prefers to be known these days) then the post Christmas Australian test team could bear (or should that be beer) little resemblence to the one that runs onto the WACA this morning.

Great article Vinay. I couldnt agree more. In particular, the niceties have to end. If J. anderson wants to stand in the middle of the pitch and mouth off, the batsman needs to approach mid pitch and politiely tell Mr Anderson to return to his mark and bowl the next ball… I’m sure if the current crop of Aussie batsmen approach S. Waugh, he will give them the suitable vocabulary for the occasion! Furthermore, your article hits home that CA – from the top down – has turned the Aussie team into a bunch of blokes that look like they really don’t even want to stand next to each other for fear of losing their own sponsors rather than a band of brothers ready to go to war for each other.

well done to siddle. great bowling, particularly after lunch when he started pitching it up. Apparently the selectors occassioanally know what they doing! I’ve got no drama’s admitting I have been quite harsh in my comments on Siddle in the last weeks, and he has proven me and many others wrong in a great spell this afternoon… Well done!

great article brett, i can only respond in kind…
5 things i’d like to see over the summer ….
1. a gritty, gutsy, hard earnt, game saving century from any Aussie batsman that steels the team and the fans for the summer.
2. genuine fire in the belly of the Aussie bowlers. Absolutely give it to the pommy batsmen… make them squirm, make them uncomfortable. get right under their skin… risk the fine and fire up!
3. the Australian players come together as a genuine, solid, committed team rather than appear as 12 blokes that accasionally set aside business / media / tabloid / T20 commitments to get together and play a bit of cricket.
4. Kerry O’Keefe involved in a sexting scandal with julia gillard – or Doug Bollinger score a century as nightwatchman (I couldn’t decide which would be more entertaining!)
5. the Ashes back in Australia…

Vinay, As usual, you have hit the nail on the head… couldn’t agree more with your comments. Young blood and leadership is desperately needed! As for teh bowling line up. Hilf is a must, but I would pick Dougs rug over Siddle, he will get more wickets and bowl a more consistant line and length than Siddle could dream of. (By the way, are we catching up for another beer at Sydney test?)
Brett… Marcus North as capt… I am speechless. Just read the article in the SMH. This is an absolute indicator of the depths of the problem Australian cricket is currently facing. The bloke has to have been on the fringe of being dropped since he entered the team, and now he is the next captain… I wouldn’t let him bat in my mighty fourth grade team (and I wouldn’t let Siddle bowl either!)

yup… absolutely… why not?And if not George, there is a plethora of young (read under 25) angry fast bowlers in this great nation of ours!
did you see last night… one word…. poo
Can I get a refund on the tickets I have purchased for the summer of cricket?
The Australian team is in desperate need of bowlers, batsmen and most importantly LEADERSHIP.
Perhaps next weeks article could well be titled; ‘Is there a man fit for captaincy in the house?’… just a thought.

Siddle??? Please…. We need wickets this summer.
Not a bowler who has 60 wickets at a little over 31 and claims just 3.5 wickets per test. As a strike bowler these figures just do not cut the mustard.
Why not blood an angry young genuine quick into the team? (I’m thinking someone in the same vein as Glenn McGrath circa 1993!)

great story and great article mate. makes the Brumbies almost likeable… almost. ha ha.

great article Kersi. I couldn’t agree more. He has the ability to turn a test in an hour or a session. Pakistan are screaming out for a player with this talent, not to mention the vast experience you referred to in your article. His positive attitude is another factor the Pakistan test team are sadly lacking.

Great read Brett, and an article that I’m sure will promote plenty of discussion…
Now, as to your selections, you couldn’t be wronger! You couldn’t be wronger if you were Andrew Hilditch… actually, I’ve never seen you and Andrew in the same room. Maybe that’s why Jamie Cox was so interested in where we were sitting for the Sydney test! Hmmmm… but I digress…
Well done on picking Warne, Murali, McGrath, Ponting, Gilly and Kallis. These blokes basically pick themselves. How could a cricket freak such as you could get the other half of the team so wrong? Well, a little bit wrong anyway. Cricket is about much more than statistics and statistics alone do not tell the complete story of what a player offers a team.
OK… the openers. There is no doubt Langer and Hayden were the standout combination of the last decade. However, the mission was to pick the team, not combinations. As such, Smith has to be there. I thought of it like this; if I was to pick a team to play for my life, who do I want saving me? The answer is Smith and Langer. I thought long and hard about Gayle because of his ability to change a test in one session, but ultimately went a little more conservative and took Langer for his tenacious ability to bat all day.
3 and 4, Ponting, Kallis. No question. Now, as to 5 Andrew, you and I have some issues. I’m dropping Dravid for Sachin. He is a once in a generation batsman and has to be in this team. I believe he offers more as a five than Dravid. He has played more than 160 tests and still averaging around 55. Interestingly he has also just surpassed 30000 runs in international cricket. You can’t go past that sort of experience. Furthermore, and it goes without saying, he is magnificent to watch (Give me a ‘hell yeah!’ Kersi). I’ll back Sangakkara at 6, his record speaks for itself. In fact the only other change I will make is; I’m doing a straight South African swap, and am in complete agreeance with Vinay, Steyn in, Ntini out. Again, it came down to whom I would want bowling for my life, and Steyn has more variety and wicket taking potential.
I’m definitely sacking your skipper. Ponting! Please! His stubborn refusal to even consider bowling first and his record as only the second Australian skipper to lose consecutive Ashes series in England means he is disqualified from consideration. I’ve gone for Smith. I like the way he plays the game and the way he leads his men.
That’s my 11. I want to see a test between my 11 and your 11! I’ve rung my… ahhhh… numbers man in India, Shobhan Mehta, and he has my team at $1.40 favourites to beat your team at $2.60. In fact he told me Mark Waugh has already put 10 large on my team to towel up your team inside 4 days! I’ve also contacted the BCCI and they are happy to see the test played, as long as it’s a 20twenty and it’s played in India and televised in America!
Oh crap! I almost forgot the twelfth man… wait for it… are you ready… P. Siddle (I told you I’d find a spot for him!). The Australian Selectors and the brains trust that is the channel nine commentary team keep assuring us that Siddle is a first rate, top class international cricketer. Evidence would suggest that this talent is not as an opening bowler so I submit that more than any other cricketer in the last decade, the bloke must carry the hell out of a drink!

funny stuff mate… let me add two of my own… firstly I take great credit for predicting in January that Brian Smith would be gone from the Newcastle by August… unfortunately I had made the same prediction for three years running! Mid Ashes I predicted that the Sydney Test would mark the beginning of Simon Katich’s captaincy of the national side, for which I was widely criticised (by you), 3 weeks out and I stand by that prediction! Similarly I predicted the downfall of Hilditch as Chairman of Selectors – wrong again (unfortunately)!

vinay… hear hear!!! Call me a luddite, but I couldn’t agree more, however and to the detriment of the game at all levels and society in general, such beliefs seem to be dying a slow death.

Interesting article Brett. The issue I took out of the first test was how long before the batsman/fielding skipper figures if he wastes a bit of time thinking about it, a signal (as simple as a player removing a cap or somehting equally as covert) can be passed from the dressing room (after watching a replay or two) so the batsman/skipper knows whether or not he should refer the appeal with a better idea of the outcome. Just quietly, I think Ricky has already cottoned on to this with his referral’s taking a longer period of ‘thought’ when he is in the field…
I don’t think I like it. Over a career I’m sure the bad decisions are probably evened out by ‘generous’ decisions (like the plumb LBW I survived on Saturday… gotta love 4th grade!)

it’s funny because it’s true!

Mate, another quality article that has promoted plenty of thoughtful discussion on one of my favorite topics!
Lets just call the ICC what it really is; the slightly unsuccessful international business arm of the BCCI. As Vinay rightly pointed out, this is not going to change as long as they are creating some 70% of world wide cricket revenue. To be slightly controversial and a little off track, I maintain that the reason we no longer see Andrew Symonds playing international cricket is a direct result of the BCCI’s disturbing amount of power, specifically as displayed when he had his ‘disagreement’ with harby. The ICC needs overhalling. No argument.
As to cricket schedules… I was and am sympathetic to a point. Whilst there can be no doubt scehduling is revenue based for the country’s involved and broadcaster, revenue is also a motivator for the players, evidenced by the cash grab our ‘worn and weary’ players make when they go to India (or South Africa) to play twenty20 when they do have a ‘break in scheduling’. So, that is the point where my sympathies end.
I know it is easier to criticise than to offer solutions, but a realistic solution for these topics is very difficult, but again well done for promoting further discussion!

Where has the spine of this batting line up gone? Alan Border and Steve Waugh spent decades cultivating a batting line up with an ice cold, hardened steel spine that Wolverine would have been proud of!

Is it a skills issue, an attitude issue or a captaincy issue?

Personally I’ve spent too much time defeding our batsmen, and it is wearing very thin. I’m gutted by how they folded last night, when it REALLY counted. My fourth grade team mates have more grit and determination than I saw last night.

God damn I hope they prove me wrong in the 2nd innings…

got nothing to say really. looking forward to australia batting. but really just wanted to be the 200th comment. well done brett. g’day ralph, set for another late night?

Did anyone see the close ups of the bowlers foot marks on the pitch… it seems to be very dry, very dusty and very crumbly for a morning one, day one pitch… I can’t help wondering how it going to hold up over the five days. Honours definitely to England in the first session… never a good sign when Ricky is captain, it is here that he seems to struggle (gee that’s easy to say from the comfort of my living room! ha ha)

giv a part time spinner an over before lunch? siddle’s line and length all over the shop. he can’t seem to bowl consistant spells of any length whatsoever, just a good over here and there.