+1

Sheek made his opinion clear. Then when someone gave him no option but to open his perspective he immediately back-tracked.

I certainly respect Sheek’s opinion and he often raises good points or arguments and always has excellent and thoughtful comments. Believe me, the Roar is all the richer for someone like Sheek’s input.

However, I just believe that his thoughts are often in a very idealistic perspective which just doesn’t wash with the ways of the real world. Particularly in the case of this topic. Blaming T20 for our batting woes is just so short-sighted, it actually baffles me that Sheek would fall into the trap of believing it.

Ryan, with all-due-respect, much of what is said on the Roar has a sense of personal engagement. If me questioning the way Sheek’s perspective models his opinions actually opens up a discussion then I believe it is fair.

To say Sheek is the victim of a personal attack actually says to me that Sheek can’t develop a fair and balanced argument to support his opinions and thus needs a hand to cop out of it. And I don’t think that’s fair on any of us.

You can’t blame short form cricket for Australia’s exclusive woes. Every other country plays one day and twenty 20 cricket too. But there’s about four of them who are far better than us in all forms of the game. We had two or three generations of all-time greats being pumped out and into our test line-up. You cannot expect that to be sustained forever. We’re in a lull, it’s just a natural progression. Brighter days lie ahead but confusing ends with their cause won’t help fix the problem.

Ed Cowan is not test standard, get rid of him. There’s nothing more to say on the matter.

Wait. Our number 11, who is a specialist bowler, will be dropped for his batting? You’re lost.

He wears a baggy green. That’s what matters.

Pattinson, Siddle and Harris. I don’t buy into the argument that they’re too alike. They’ve all got great test match records and will build sustained pressure which will assist Lyon into drawing false strokes.If they turn out to have lacked penetration, then you can bring Starc in for the second test. But I’d rather risk those three doing the same thing and becoming predictable then Starc being all over the place and allowing the Poms to take him to the cleaners.

1. Watson
2. Rogers
3. Hughes
4. Clarke
5. Khawaja
6. Smith
7. Haddin
8. Siddle
9. Pattinson
10. Harris
11. Lyon

Cowan has been a dud from the word go, time we moved on from that experiment and I’ve gone with the fast bowlers who have the proven test records, Siddle will lift his game for the first test. Bird is my next in-line replacement for any of them with Starc the last resort.

No, the attitude and tight knit group is what Arthur was trying to do. Boof is trying to win.

You’re very confused by an end and its cause. India is the home of the IPL and is T20s biggest market, but they just won the Champions Trophy off the back of a four-nil drubbing over Australia. How do you explain that? T20? Please…

1. South Africa are far and away the best attack in the world. Morkel, Steyn and Philander are good enough that a lack of a world class spinner is barely noticeable.

2. England have a balanced attack with depth. They do however struggle when Anderson doesn’t get the ball to swing and/or Broad goes haywire (on his bad days he’s atrocious).

3. Australia have a semi-dependable spinner and some serious strike power in Harris and Pattinson. Then there’s the ever reliable Siddle. They also have the benefit of depth with the likes of Starc, Johnson, Bird and many more waiting in the wings.

4. Pakistan have a good attack, but without Ameer and Asif they lost their gloss. Saeed Ajmal is the best spinner in the world but while the seam bowlers have potential, they aren’t world class.

I’m with you jameswm. Siddle is a consistent work horse. He’s highly improved over the last 2 years and will be a reliable cog in the team. He will never let you down. Unlike the majority of our hit and miss batting order (sorry, hit and miss, miss, miss).

We wouldn’t need Copeland. Our fast bowling is very good. O’Keefe should be there, he should have been in every test side for the last 2 years, but he’s surely made an enemy with the wrong person at cricket Australia. Then we come to Ferguson. Personally, I don’t rate him. He’s had ample time to develop his first-class cricket and hasn’t managed to lift his batting average out of the mid 30s. And we wonder why the Poms are so confident, when people are barracking for guys like Ferguson to get a test call up.

Easier said than done, especially on the increasing the salary cap department.

You’ve just got to look at the guy’s twitter feed. His excitement over seeing a turtle at the zoo the other day was embarrassing. He’s clearly got the mental capacity of an angry, ill-informed teenager.

Warner is a right tool. He’s certainly no larikin. Symonds was a people’s player, Warner is not. Time and time again he has showed a lack of commitment to the side through his selfishness. You only have to look at his twitter feed of late to see that scores of 0, 0 and 9 don’t get him in the nets 24/7, they mean he gets a day off to go to the bloody zoo.

I don’t like his attitude, and it doesn’t help that he’s a bumbling idiot who can’t articulate a sentence, if he even knows what a sentence is…

Warner’s punishment has just been confirmed as a suspension up until the start of the first Ashes test. Either they’re afraid they might need him or they know he’ll be under prepared for the first test. Hopefully they acknowledge its the latter and he doesn’t play. It simplifies selection too. Rogers, Cowan, Hughes, Watson, Clarke, Khawaja/Haddin seems the likely batting line-up then come the first test.

Hard to argue with you here David. The only thing I disagree with is two tests in Sydney. Take one to Melbourne and everything looks good to me.

+1

I did say “over $550M”.

Baggy Green, while I like that you’re thinking about improving the Shield, I must disagree on a few points. Firstly, I think one of the major downfalls of Shield cricket at the moment is a lack of experienced, seasoned pros with international experience. It’s great to see Ricky Ponting and Michael Hussey bucking the recent trend of international retirements also meaning the end of their first-class careers. We need more of this into the future. The lessons a young Jordan Silk will learn from Ponting in Tasmania may be what separates him from the rest come five years time.

Your scheduling proposal is faulty in that the BBL absolutely must run through the summer holiday period in order to maximise is revenue making ability, and after all, the money made by the BBL is what props up the running of the Shield in the first place, this is very important. I like mds1970 suggestion of a red-ball season followed by white-ball cricket.

The Shield could start early with the first two or three round being played exclusively in the top-end, be it Darwin, Townsville or Cairns, to avoid damp and cold pitches in the southern states. Going flat out first-class cricket all the way to the BBL commences. This way all the test players will be heavily involved at the start of the season, if not the majority of the Shield in all. Potential test players will have ample opportunity to put forward their case in 7, 8 or more Shield games leading up to the first test. This frees up January for the BBL and the Ryobi cup kicks off in February.

The phenomenon of ‘result’ pitches is a tricky one. On one hand, I see the tried, tested and proven technique of Ricky Ponting scoring bucket loads of runs on the notorious Bellerive green monster and conversely there seems to be an overall dominance by bowlers in the Shield as a whole. Are the quality of wickets to blame? I’m not so sure.

I genuinely believe that if the batsmen were good enough, they wouldn’t be falling behind so badly. I don’t think ‘result’ pitches are to blame and I’m not even sure they’re actually as common as they’re made out to be. Maybe the reason our young batsmen average 35 in the Shield, make it to test cricket and then average 30 is not that they’re playing their first-class cricket on bowler friendly wickets, but that they actually just aren’t that good to begin with. Hard to fathom I know, but it makes sense right?

As for Australia A or expansion in the Shield. I’m against it. What separates the Shield from county cricket is that there is no delusion of player quality. You have to be one of the best 66 players in the country to be out there. Further diluting the talent pool with another side will only undo the good work of getting former and current test players involved in the Shield and bring the overall quality of cricket down.

Well that’s my two bobs worth.

I think you would find that the average rugby fan thinks scrapping the ARC was a massive blunder. The ARU made the mistake of expecting it to compete with the AFL/NRL. They should have accepted it needed to run at a loss for the betterment of player development and the game overall.

As for where CA will find money to fund the Shield, I’ll quickly direct you to their recent TV deals with Nine and Ten worth over $550M plus foreign rights deals which prop up their income to over $1B during the next five years. If they can’t find the money to operate the Shield with that sort of funding, how on earth have they managed to keep it running with a fraction of that over the past 100 years.

Exactly, it needs to operate in the summer holiday period to function at its peak. Unfortunately the cricket schedule just has to function around that.

Johnno, you cite the Shield as a poor investment. I would argue the complete opposite. If the Shield functions properly (I believe Australia is just going through a lull of talent after being gifted with so many all-time greats, that should be expected) and produces test match stars, crowds will flock to see them in action wearing the baggy green and thus the investment in the Shield is vindicated.

The Shield is not designed to make money. Saying that money to operate the Shield is scarce is just wrong. You even make the point that Clarke is in-line for a pay rise, why do you think that is? CA has an abundance of funds at their disposal and not investing in the development of future test players would be irresponsible.

Just looking at the Aussie batting order today, I couldn’t help but appreciate the balance they’v gone into this match with. Watson and Warner at the top form a formidable pairing, Hughes has a handy knack of scoring runs, Baily and Voges both bat very well and have great records to show it. At six you’ve got a hard hitting batting all-rounder in Marsh Jnr. and it’s such a relief to have Wade’s batting held all the way back down at seven where there’s little pressure on him.

The all pace attack is the way to go too. I think McKay and Starc should have opened with the rock today, but so far that’s the only tactic I can find fault in.

I genuinely think this is the first time in a long time that we’ve got a selection down pat. Thoughts roarers?