Conceit and myopia in selection have hurt Australia

‘They look like a club side’, lamented a disappointed friend of mine. The way the team went about chasing a par score of 270 against England in the Champion’s Trophy earlier this month betrayed the famous Aussie fighting spirit. The result was a foregone conclusion soon after the chase started, there was no semblance of anyone putting his hands up to take the fight to the opposition. That has been the story of Australia in this Champion’s Trophy and at times in these past few years.

Having dominated World Cricket since early 90s to the mid-2000s, it is distressing to see the deterioration in the team who were once the trend-setters for the rest of the world. Their rigorous systems, planning and strategy and careful selections moulded many a great and quite a few effective players in the last two decades. But they have failed to connect that with an eye on pragmatism in the recent past.

India and Australia have in some senses faced a similar phase in these last few years - the greats of the game from both teams were expected to leave the team one after another. If Australia saw the last of Glenn McGrath, Shane Warne, Adam Gilchrist, Mathew Hayden and Ricky Ponting on the International Cricket field, India have lost Sourav Ganguly, Anil Kumble, Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman and Sachin Tendulkar (so far in the shorter format).

The selectors in India have often been accused of being lackadaisical and not pre-empting a plan for the phase-out, but the restraint they exercised and the wisdom they saw in having a potent combination of experience and youth, seems to have worked well for the team. While the ability of the Test team especially when playing abroad is yet to be tested, the limited overs team seems pretty settled at the moment.

As for Australia, the selectors have been far too inconsistent with too much of chopping and changing. They have tended to act with what could only be called conceit and myopia - the manner in which the likes of Michael Bevan, Brad Hodge, Simon Katich, Nathen Bracken, Brad Haddin, Nathan Lyon and Shaun Marsh have been handled in the last few years goes to explain this. The first four had their career cruelly cut short despite having the quality, age, fitness and skills to command a place in the team for a few years more. Most of these players could have gone a long way in ensuring a smoother change of guard. Different selectors have served on the job for Australia in the last decade – Trevor Hohns, Andrew Hilditch and John Inverarity but they’ve all been guilty of the same mistake, severing the life of a player much before the use-by-date and ringing in inconsistent changes without quite gauging how it could hurt the team’s fortunes in the medium to long run.

If the selectors were indeed convinced with their moves where the ‘form-age’ combination has often been cited as the reason for the changes, it was not paralleled with a planned investment in youth especially in the batting department.

Recently, Mike Hussey’s public admission that he was forced to act selfish and keep his retirement plans under wraps to protect his place in the last few games, speaks of the lack of trust bred by Cricket Australia and their team of selectors. It’s only a matter of hypothesis now, the kind of impact a senior pro like Hussey would have had on the dressing room had his superior fitness levels and skills been used for a year or two more.

To let bygones be bygones, Australia could do well with some strong leadership and trust, to focus on building the team together. Michael Clarke along with Micky Arthur could work on mending fences with seniors in the team including Shane Watson and Mitchell Johnson. High-handedness and a lack of consistency in dealing with disciplinary issues as we have seen, have had an adverse impact on the environment of the dressing room.

As Australia look to rebuild from one of their worst slumps seen in recent years, the cricket-lovers and players would be hoping that the selectors bring in changes carefully and back their picks. A touch of humility should do them no harm.

My first week with Club Cricket

Having followed Cricket passionately for over three decades, I was experiencing the game at Club level for the first time. Last week’s experience at the 38^th Lala Raghubir Hot Weather Tournament was refreshing. And there was something else which was new too. I was there not as a fan, but in the capacity of a hopeful ‘to-be’ umpire.

In the last week of this Tournament conducted in New Delhi, my initial reaction was one of awe of the infrastructure that this hugely popular Modern School was providing to the students and to the rest of the local sporting community by way of organizing such events. At a school level, providing such facilities in the developmental years of both skills and interests, this was almost all of what a kid and the parents could ask for. Good quality coaches, am told, is not unfamiliar here either as added on by some biased parties.

Feeling my way around in the school for the first time, I came across two full Cricket grounds, a Football field and two Basketball courts before I find my way to the correct venue where Hargopal Cricket Club, Modern School’s own club was taking on RP Academy in the last leg of the league games.

I was an observer and spectator at another league game, one of the semis and the Finals as well. What struck me most was the quality of cricket and the pedigree of cricketers who took part. It was a mix of cricketers trying to find their way back and others trying to break into the International and State teams for the first time. One saw the likes of Gautam Gambhir, Unmukt Chand, Praveen Kumar, Tanmay Srivastava along with a handful other Ranji players and hopefuls taking part in this tournament where only the ground fielding and catching left much to be desired.

The tournament could easily pass off as a mad adventurous activity to be played in the hottest time of the year, the temperature hovering around mid-40s on most days. The only redeeming factor of the 40 over-an innings games was the early morning start of 7.30.  The experienced Cricket writer Vijay Lokapally tells me what an avid fan of Club cricket he is and how the tournament is not said to have had any incident of Heat Stroke in all these years. Well, quite a statistic that, if it indeed is true, and I go by the gentleman’s word.

The tournament has assumed enough significance and glamour over the years for the Finals to be telecast live on National Television, DD Sports. I am told spectators used to throng the Finals in thousands in the previous years but thanks to betting issues faced in the past, the gate was shut for the public this time. True to its stature, the Finals was an enthralling affair going right through to the last over, oscillating between both teams till 3 balls before the scheduled close of the match.

If the tournament and the participating players were of repute, the officials managing the show were not going to be of a lower pedigree. Led by Anil Chaudhary, one of the top BCCI umpires with the experience of standing in a number of IPL games this season, the umpires and scorers were all either BCCI accredited or State empaneled.

The tournament would do well of course, to have a better quality outfield, the lack of a level outfield with tall grass looking up in patches does not augur well for its reputation.

Moving back to the reason why I was pulled to these matches in the first place, I ended the week’s tryst with club cricket with a great deal more of respect and a touch of admiration added on for the Umpiring department. The job involves much more than what a normal spectator picks up - signalling wides, no-balls and judging leg before appeals. If anything, the continued concentration required all through the match irrespective of the end where the umpire is positioned, can be exhausting physically and mentally and makes the job quite demanding.

I completed this leg of my new journey, more enlightened in areas and levels of the game I knew little about. I was convinced, this first stage of acquaintance would be stimulating like none other.