tony grieg passes and hussey retiring at end of the season...
bad day for cricket in australia...
Hussey going ain't that bad as he should have been punted on at least 4 occasions previously only to be spared the axe and get runs. Best news for this is that it will free up the No 6 spot to put Watson where he should be
Watson is like a tampon....
in for 1 out for 3...
not a fan of him at all...
Mark Waugh was considered one of the best bats we've had in last 20 years, scored 20 test centuries from 128 tests.
Hussey has 19 from 77 tests.
Test average 10 points higher.
Bloke is far better than he's given credit for.
Says a lot for putting these kids in after 10 Sheild matches. Hussey, like Boof Lehman and a few others had to prove themselves before getting a run.
Seems these days you just need a mate in the paper to blow your trumpet and you're given a baggy green.
Big difference between then and now IMO. The depth just isn't there in the Shield and there aren't the number of blokes scoring big runs at that level like there was previously. Because of the guys are getting a run in the test team that would have been lucky to get a state spot in years past.
Also the game has changed a lot since those days. Most of the blokes coming through in the Hayden/Hussey/Lehmann era actually focused on having a technique for first class cricket. Nowadays kids are bought up to hit the ball for the big shot all the time thanks to one day cricket and 20/20. When they get to first class level their technique constantly gets found out as they are all hand and eye.
Couple that with the return to fashion of swing bowling and that in this day and age pitches are starting to see a bit more grass on them than the roads of the late 90's and early 2000's and these new found cricketers are struggling. Why cause they don't have the technique/footwork to play decent bowling where the ball does a bit through the air or off the pitch as they are eye playing sloggers
australias problem is that we are putting 20/20 players in tests, it doesnt work and it wont work
yes you will probably say look at warner etc, but warner is ****ing hopeless, he gets out playing a stupid shot 9/10 times.
we are going to struggle in the future, til we bleed proper test players
CONSPIRACY THEORY 34585628930 -D
Have a sneaking feeling this 20-20 shite is an elaborate plot by the Poms. Offer it up to the world who go head over heels for it. Poms work on the basics of technique whilst everyone else is going gaga over 20-20. All of a sudden everyone elses technical game falls apart and the Poms rise to the top of the world as they have kept their eye on the big picture and worked on developing players for Test cricket with some technique.
Unfortunately it is all reality except for any HARD proof of the Pommy plot
Plus we have trouble moving the ball over in pommyland. bring back alderman
Granted England stumbled into a couple of once in a generation talents like Strauss and Cook but **** me the Aussies just went to water for a long time.
15 years ago Graham Swann would have been the laughing stock of world cricket and belted out of the attack at every opportunity, the bloke chucks dead set pies.
Nowadays the Aussie kids believe the hype and are shit scared of him before they walk out.
We've turned into a team of Daryl Cullinans.
There's not been a better off spinner* in the last 15 years than Swann. He would stroll in to any test teams first XI right now, and would have strolled into any other side, bar an Aus XI with Warne involved, over the past 15 years, probably longer.
*Murali doesn't bowl, he throws.