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Australian Cricket - Crisis, What Crisis ??

Australia are 1-0 down in the series and are facing not a world record chase, it'll be a universe record number of runs they need to win this second Test. However, the cracks that have appeared in this series, which will undoubtedly turn into gaping chasms by the time the team arrives back here for the return series, are not something that has just magically appeared. It is my strong belief that this has been coming for some time, its just that the pressure & microscope of an Ashes series has made them more visible than ever before.

Australian cricket, not dislike our fabulous football club, goes in cycles of success based on the quality of key players assembled at any given time. We have been giving the Poms some serious wallopings for some years on the back of having player like Warne, Waugh, McGrath & Gilchrist in the team.

If we take a look at the current team, only Michael Clarke is genuinely up to world standard although Ashton Agar has given us some future hope. Siddle & Pattinson are good bowlers, but not great, with both having some control issues and not knowing when & when not to be aggressive and in their face. Haddin is not a 'keepers bootlace yet if you ask anyone, they'll tell you he's the best of a bad bunch. Khawaja, Rogers, Cowan etc all have reasonable techniques but don't have the iron-clad mettle to build a long innings whilst Hughes is just a complete dud with an equally dud technique and footwork.

Basically, we have not been able to replace the gun players of the previous era (it is not something done with ease either) but the players we keep pinning our hopes on are too soft mentally or are too focussed on themselves, not the team (read : Watson).

We have recently seen the players have a hand in former coach Mickey Arthur being sacked with Watson's sooky-la-la attitude being central to it all. There is a culture within the playing ranks that is in complete contrast to that of yesteryear whereby the players did what was expected of them and didn't quibble about being pushed harder to achieve greater heights. They had genuine character and lived up to the standards that go with wearing the famous baggy green cap. 

It seems like this behaviour is not only tolerated, it is considered acceptable by many of them too !!

To add insult to injury, the ACB is being run by one James Sutherland who to the best of my knowledge, has not done anything ever to promote the game in this country nor focus on producing better cricketers overall. I say this because I keep getting the online newsletters telling us at grass roots level how well cricket is going in this country yet he is undoubtedly out of touch with reality. Cricket does not have increasing participation levels at all James, sadly, it is on the decrease and by a reasonable amount too. So instead of facing the reality of the situation and making plans to address it, they just put their heads in the sand and say its all good, great work if you can get it I reckon !!

And the ACB itself, it has some serious issues to address for this thing to be turned around and heading in the right direction. It appears to me that it is more and more being run along the lines of what you would get an your local and well-established suburban club with the only difference being that these guys actually get paid for giving their old school buddy a lucrative job or getting their best mate's son into the state squad.

They say the 'fish rots from the head' and if we look at the ACB as a complete entity, this one is past being rotten, it is decrepit. I cannot see any reason for us to return to being a power in world cricket whilst we have lacklustre administration running the game.

With India producing Test quality players as quickly as they do Bollywood movies, we will fall further behind unless we have the right people running the game in this country with a passion & committed drive for success.

Right now, we are fast becoming a national joke and an international embarrassment.        
"The Other Teams Can Rot In Hell"

Re: Australian Cricket - Crisis, What Crisis ??

Reply #1
Still in it.  Take some early ickets this morning and we are a chance.  :P

Re: Australian Cricket - Crisis, What Crisis ??

Reply #2
I'm talking about cricket in general, we are in a lot of trouble behind the scenes as well as out in the middle.
"The Other Teams Can Rot In Hell"

Re: Australian Cricket - Crisis, What Crisis ??

Reply #3
The problem is, just like the 80's, development suffered on the back of a superb national team.

Plus, they gave Michael Clarke the captaincy 5 years ago and since then he's been waiting to get it from Punter officially, who was a crap skipper himself.

Clarke is the worst thing to happen to Oz cricket ever.

Clarke is a **** pure and simple and I don't mean a **** when he needs to be, like Alan Border, I mean just a **** every **** day of the week.

screw him, Watson and Haddin (all ****s) off and start again.
You can fool some of the people some of the time.......................................

Re: Australian Cricket - Crisis, What Crisis ??

Reply #4
Australia are 1-0 down in the series and are facing not a world record chase, it'll be a universe record number of runs they need to win this second Test. However, the cracks that have appeared in this series, which will undoubtedly turn into gaping chasms by the time the team arrives back here for the return series, are not something that has just magically appeared. It is my strong belief that this has been coming for some time, its just that the pressure & microscope of an Ashes series has made them more visible than ever before.

Australian cricket, not dislike our fabulous football club, goes in cycles of success based on the quality of key players assembled at any given time. We have been giving the Poms some serious wallopings for some years on the back of having player like Warne, Waugh, McGrath & Gilchrist in the team.

If we take a look at the current team, only Michael Clarke is genuinely up to world standard although Ashton Agar has given us some future hope. Siddle & Pattinson are good bowlers, but not great, with both having some control issues and not knowing when & when not to be aggressive and in their face. Haddin is not a 'keepers bootlace yet if you ask anyone, they'll tell you he's the best of a bad bunch. Khawaja, Rogers, Cowan etc all have reasonable techniques but don't have the iron-clad mettle to build a long innings whilst Hughes is just a complete dud with an equally dud technique and footwork.

Basically, we have not been able to replace the gun players of the previous era (it is not something done with ease either) but the players we keep pinning our hopes on are too soft mentally or are too focussed on themselves, not the team (read : Watson).

We have recently seen the players have a hand in former coach Mickey Arthur being sacked with Watson's sooky-la-la attitude being central to it all. There is a culture within the playing ranks that is in complete contrast to that of yesteryear whereby the players did what was expected of them and didn't quibble about being pushed harder to achieve greater heights. They had genuine character and lived up to the standards that go with wearing the famous baggy green cap. 

It seems like this behaviour is not only tolerated, it is considered acceptable by many of them too !!

To add insult to injury, the ACB is being run by one James Sutherland who to the best of my knowledge, has not done anything ever to promote the game in this country nor focus on producing better cricketers overall. I say this because I keep getting the online newsletters telling us at grass roots level how well cricket is going in this country yet he is undoubtedly out of touch with reality. Cricket does not have increasing participation levels at all James, sadly, it is on the decrease and by a reasonable amount too. So instead of facing the reality of the situation and making plans to address it, they just put their heads in the sand and say its all good, great work if you can get it I reckon !!

And the ACB itself, it has some serious issues to address for this thing to be turned around and heading in the right direction. It appears to me that it is more and more being run along the lines of what you would get an your local and well-established suburban club with the only difference being that these guys actually get paid for giving their old school buddy a lucrative job or getting their best mate's son into the state squad.

They say the 'fish rots from the head' and if we look at the ACB as a complete entity, this one is past being rotten, it is decrepit. I cannot see any reason for us to return to being a power in world cricket whilst we have lacklustre administration running the game.

With India producing Test quality players as quickly as they do Bollywood movies, we will fall further behind unless we have the right people running the game in this country with a passion & committed drive for success.

Right now, we are fast becoming a national joke and an international embarrassment.      

First thing I'd do is play a few from the A Team now in SA. In an extraordinary low scoring game Doolan made 52, Fawad Ahmed took 8 wickets and Cummins bowled very well. Admittedly against Zimbabwe but we have to start somewhere. The most important Ashes series is the return home series, where the the winner holds the Ashes for 3 years, so use this current series to blood some players.

Re: Australian Cricket - Crisis, What Crisis ??

Reply #5
The problem is, just like the 80's, development suffered on the back of a superb national team.

Plus, they gave Michael Clarke the captaincy 5 years ago and since then he's been waiting to get it from Punter officially, who was a crap skipper himself.

Clarke is the worst thing to happen to Oz cricket ever.

Clarke is a **** pure and simple and I don't mean a **** when he needs to be, like Alan Border, I mean just a **** every **** day of the week.

screw him, Watson and Haddin (all ****s) off and start again.

You're kidding about Clarke. He's made you look silly quite a few times so I suggest you quit that one while your behind. Especially as he's averaging 52.

As I said, try some blokes from the A Team currently touring SA.

Re: Australian Cricket - Crisis, What Crisis ??

Reply #6
The administration in this country has focussed on developing players who are best suited to playing 20/20 which does nothing for sustaining or improving a player's technique. Their mindset is all slather and whack because they think they only have 20-overs to bat, instead, they have five days which none of them have been able to completely grasp.

The administration is wrong, the selectors are wrong, the appointment of Clarke as captain was wrong at the time, the balls-up with Mickey Arthur ........... where does it stop ??

We are faced with years of rubbish like we are seeing in England right now because of the ineptness of the current people in control of the game in this country.
"The Other Teams Can Rot In Hell"

Re: Australian Cricket - Crisis, What Crisis ??

Reply #7
The problem is, just like the 80's, development suffered on the back of a superb national team.

Plus, they gave Michael Clarke the captaincy 5 years ago and since then he's been waiting to get it from Punter officially, who was a crap skipper himself.

Clarke is the worst thing to happen to Oz cricket ever.

Clarke is a **** pure and simple and I don't mean a **** when he needs to be, like Alan Border, I mean just a **** every **** day of the week.

screw him, Watson and Haddin (all ****s) off and start again.

You're kidding about Clarke. He's made you look silly quite a few times so I suggest you quit that one while your behind. Especially as he's averaging 52.

As I said, try some blokes from the A Team currently touring SA.

Fine play the selfish tool until he fails but he's not a skippers crap hole.

You can fool some of the people some of the time.......................................

Re: Australian Cricket - Crisis, What Crisis ??

Reply #8
The administration in this country has focussed on developing players who are best suited to playing 20/20 which does nothing for sustaining or improving a player's technique. Their mindset is all slather and whack because they think they only have 20-overs to bat, instead, they have five days which none of them have been able to completely grasp.

The administration is wrong, the selectors are wrong, the appointment of Clarke as captain was wrong at the time, the balls-up with Mickey Arthur ........... where does it stop ??

We are faced with years of rubbish like we are seeing in England right now because of the ineptness of the current people in control of the game in this country.


Correct.....you look at Joe Root and he does all the basics right, the technique is good. Bell wont ever be thought of as a great of test cricket yet now has a decent record based on having good technique, when he comes in his bat looks a metre wide and we never look like getting him out.
20/20 cricket is park cricket and produces park cricketers with zero technique.....you watch Hughes bat and his stance is awkward, his back anglesd , never straight, good test bowlers work you out and he has been worked out.

Its fire fighting every series...players in and out of the team with no plan, we used to be the best but now South Africa lead the pack and we are getting beat by a B grade team in England...
Most of us knew that when we picked Haddin we were in trouble and you have to look at the 35 year old Chris Rogers and compare that with the baby faced Joe Root....where is the upside/future in Haddin and Rogers. Even Harris is a retro move, bowled well but isnt the future......

If Clarke plays then Watson has to go and so do any of his faction unless that want follow orders and back the skipper......you cant have unrest in the camp unless you have Bradman like players who can perform on the field even if they dont get on with each other off the field and Watson aint no Bradman.

Re: Australian Cricket - Crisis, What Crisis ??

Reply #9
Clarke is good... once he gets a start, but he has always been a risky conveyance when batting.  That was his real issue before his golden run... lots of pretty 30's and not a lot of conversion into real scores.  When he fixed that issue, he became decent.

Agree with the above. Piss off Watson and all his mates, go back to ground zero with the batting and pick kids with technique.  There must be some around.  Joe Burns?    Nick Maddinson?

Adam Voges, although older, is another I'd look at for a cool head and a touch of experience, plus I'd be looking at Paine as well.
DrE is no more... you ok with that harmonica man?

Re: Australian Cricket - Crisis, What Crisis ??

Reply #10
Sack Sutherland.

This whole problem is a result of that weak c#%t bending over for the Indians.
Tell em to take their cash and shove it up their ass.

No more champions league trophy prior to a Test Series

Pick a 16 man squad for Test and one day cricket. Proper cricketers, not Glen Maxwell, X Doherty or Clint McKay. Guys who might become champions of the long game.

Fark off the BIG BASH crap.

Re: Australian Cricket - Crisis, What Crisis ??

Reply #11
You cant have unrest in the camp unless you have Bradman like players who can perform on the field even if they dont get on with each other off the field and Watson aint no Bradman.

Watson is the Kevin Rudd of the Australian cricket team and must go. Time for the selectors to show some bloody teeth and get ruthless, no more pandering to selfish individuals who put themselves ahead of the team.
IN WADA WE TRUST

Re: Australian Cricket - Crisis, What Crisis ??

Reply #12
Bird must be played...... bizarre that he wasn't for this Test.

Watson must be dropped - can't get rewarding the carpola he produces...... fly in another 19 YO IF THAT'S ALL WE'VE GOT....

Does Rogers get another go after that deplorable effort?

Way too many NSW guys in the team too. Smith? Meh?

Hughes - double meh.......Shaun Marsh is 6 times the player Hughes could ever be......

Voges? D. Hussey?

Mike Hussey saw the writing in the wall i reckon.

Is Clarke as Captain the problem?!!  ???
Finals, then 4 in a row!

Re: Australian Cricket - Crisis, What Crisis ??

Reply #13
Bird must be played...... bizarre that he wasn't for this Test.

Watson must be dropped - can't get rewarding the carpola he produces...... fly in another 19 YO IF THAT'S ALL WE'VE GOT....

Does Rogers get another go after that deplorable effort?

Way too many NSW guys in the team too. Smith? Meh?

Hughes - double meh.......Shaun Marsh is 6 times the player Hughes could ever be......

Voges? D. Hussey?

Mike Hussey saw the writing in the wall i reckon.

Is Clarke as Captain the problem?!!  ???

Don't start me on the NSW thingy, despite the team problems they are not the only cause, they just started the stone rolling down a very slippery slope! And I won't even start on NSW Cricket's alleged links to the MCC manipulating player placement in County Cricket!

How to become a Australian Test player;

 - Be born, play or move to NSW.
 - Be a distant cousin, nephew or relative of a past NSW state or test player.
 - Hack 50 runs off 20 balls in some limited over rubbish on a back block in Mudgee or similar off the radar location.
 - Rip open the brown paper bag they delivered when your mum brought you home from hospital!

When Sheffield Shield Cricket died, Australian Test cricket became gravely ill!

Now we breed hacks courtesy of the big bash!

PS.  Further to my hack statement, the juniors I sometimes help to coach tell me that David Warner and Phil Hughes are "Classical Batsmen." That says something about where our national sport is heading!
The Force Awakens!

Re: Australian Cricket - Crisis, What Crisis ??

Reply #14
Have been talking this morning with friends about the parlous state of Australian cricket when one of them brought up two more incidents that I'd forgotten about.

The first was Mike Hussey's retirement and the party amongst the players that got hijacked by Clarke & Watson who wanted to go on Packer's boat. Hussey stated he didn't want a big fanfare, a few beers in the change-rooms with the lads would suffice. Packer offered his boat for the shindig so Clarke decides that it is a ACB sanctioned event that all players had to attend, however, some of them (including Hussey & Pattinson) refused to go.

What this event did was put a huge wedge in the playing group and unnecessarily divided it virtually permanently.

The other was the poor handling of Simon Katich and his selection in the team and then his unceremonious dumping etc. It was all woefully childish and smacked of 'jobs for the boys'.

Australian cricket needs a huge enema to cleanout the crap stuck in the middle of it.

Time to rebuild the actual playing squad from the ground up, be prepared to cop some beltings whilst the young guys perfect their craft and only then will we be back on par with the rest of the world leaders in the game.

    
"The Other Teams Can Rot In Hell"