Fourth Test team

Good memory. I cannot recall it. Do not remember Jones playing much Test cricket in early 90's. He was out of favour at one point.
I've said this before but I was at the SCG for Warne's debut and came away convinced he wouldn't amount to anything.
 
Sep 30, 2008
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I see Warne has come out and said how vital it was to have a 5th bowler at adelaide, be nice if people like him had spoken up about how vital marsh was when he was in the side and not getting a bowl like say a year ago at Adelaide when his vital bowling was used for 0.0 out of 160 overs.
Warne played in a side that virtually never had a 5th bowler - if you haven't got it - you're not going to miss it.
 
Apr 19, 2013
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The BBL isn't the major factor in my view - we have a systemic problem with producing batsmen now.
Because almost none of the test batsmen play shield or club cricket and it's been that way for far too long. In the off season, they're either playing in india, county cricket, or somewhere else. During the season they're playing for the bucks in the bbl than club cricket, and then playing like assholes in shield cricket, averaging low numbers.

The same goes for the bowlers. I don't think Australia's pace attack is anywhere near as good as people talk about, with Lyon arguably the best.
 
Sep 30, 2008
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Because almost none of the test batsmen play shield or club cricket and it's been that way for far too long. In the off season, they're either playing in india, county cricket, or somewhere else. During the season they're playing for the bucks in the bbl than club cricket, and then playing like assholes in shield cricket, averaging low numbers.

The same goes for the bowlers. I don't think Australia's pace attack is anywhere near as good as people talk about, with Lyon arguably the best.
No
 
Sep 30, 2008
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So you're saying that Warner, Smith, etc play more club and shield cricket than hit and giggle and county?
No, you're on the wrong tram - head over to the thread 'Development of Batsmen' then come back to me in a week or so. Then go and stand behind a net that Starc and co bowl in and address your comments about our bowling attack - here's a tip - they're world class.
 
Apr 19, 2013
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What is wrong with our batsman playing County Cricket? A better quality than club cricket.

BBL is not what's causing our batsman to be s**t
CA should have clauses in their contract that force players to play in shield games.

BBL/T20 hasn't helped, actually it's made the overall level of batting around the world worse. The biggest issue is CA's scheduling, and the need to field the same players in all 3 formats, often within a week, sometimes the day after.

There's money in hit and giggle and a lot of the players are greedy *s, who'll take the money than play club. Look at Smith playing in whatever obscure competition he can for a cheap buck, while Warner is playing club.
 
Aug 9, 2017
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CA should have clauses in their contract that force players to play in shield games.

BBL/T20 hasn't helped, actually it's made the overall level of batting around the world worse. The biggest issue is CA's scheduling, and the need to field the same players in all 3 formats, often within a week, sometimes the day after.

There's money in hit and giggle and a lot of the players are greedy ****s, who'll take the money than play club. Look at Smith playing in whatever obscure competition he can for a cheap buck, while Warner is playing club.
Look i agree that the CA do a terrible job with our summer fixture but the argument makes no sense.

BBL is not on during the Shield so players are not missing any Shield games during that time.

County cricket is good and i would love to see more of our players playing in the competition. It is in no way a reason for our lack of developing young batsman.

Playing more club cricket is not going to solve any of our issues and it is not the reason we are struggling at the moment.
 
Sep 30, 2008
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Look i agree that the CA do a terrible job with our summer fixture but the argument makes no sense.

BBL is not on during the Shield so players are not missing any Shield games during that time.

County cricket is good and i would love to see more of our players playing in the competition. It is in no way a reason for our lack of developing young batsman.

Playing more club cricket is not going to solve any of our issues and it is not the reason we are struggling at the moment.
Bear in mind that the UK are about to do the same thing that we've done to County Cricket with a 44% reduction in weekend County fixtures for next year in order to play 100 ball cricket...
 
Aug 9, 2017
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The problem remains though, that the BBL is played throughout the Test program, reducing the selectors to pick players based on BBL and not Sheffield Shield.
That is a different point though, i agree that the fixture is set out awfully. I don't agree that players aren't playing Shield cricket though, all players unless picked for Australia participate in Shield cricket.
 

HLM*

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20/20 hasn’t ruined the development of batsmen in this country. We’ve come out of era’s where we have been absolutely spoilt for choice with a plethora of outstanding test quality batsmen. The greats of those eras are now our unit of measurement when comparing our batsmen of today.

Equipment, technology, sports science etc has never been better. By rights we should be producing better quality batsmen than that of previous eras and a higher amount. We’re just unfortunately going through a period where we aren’t producing many quality batsmen. Unfortunately it happens. 20/20 isn’t to blame for it.

I think there are a number of quality young batsmen at domestic level that will start to come into the Australian set up in the next 5 years. Who knows, maybe they’ll be this generations equivalent of our langers,hayden’s,pontings,martyn’s,waughs etc
 

corbies

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There's money in hit and giggle and a lot of the players are greedy ****s, who'll take the money than play club. Look at Smith playing in whatever obscure competition he can for a cheap buck, while Warner is playing club.
Smith and Warner have both played 11 games of club cricket this season. Bizarre comment.
 
Sep 30, 2008
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20/20 hasn’t ruined the development of batsmen in this country. We’ve come out of era’s where we have been absolutely spoilt for choice with a plethora of outstanding test quality batsmen. The greats of those eras are now our unit of measurement when comparing our batsmen of today.

Equipment, technology, sports science etc has never been better. By rights we should be producing better quality batsmen than that of previous eras and a higher amount. We’re just unfortunately going through a period where we aren’t producing many quality batsmen. Unfortunately it happens. 20/20 isn’t to blame for it.

I think there are a number of quality young batsmen at domestic level that will start to come into the Australian set up in the next 5 years. Who knows, maybe they’ll be this generations equivalent of our langers,hayden’s,pontings,martyn’s,waughs etc

The bolded statement is correct - but we aren't and I argue that we don't have a any batsmen coming through and it's much more than a generational issue - its a system issue and it's deep seated.
 
Sep 21, 2002
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That is a different point though, i agree that the fixture is set out awfully. I don't agree that players aren't playing Shield cricket though, all players unless picked for Australia participate in Shield cricket.

That's not going to change. They want the Test matches over in a hurry, and it has to accommodate the Boxing Day Test at the MCG. BBL has to be played over the Christmas break for the kiddies and $$$$$. There's no way out of this for Australian cricket. The moment Sheffield Shield is ready to resume, an Australian contingent is being shipped off to another part of the world for yet another meaningless series of T20s and ODIs. This is screwing up any chance some like Glen Maxwell has of getting picked for Test cricket.
 

HLM*

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The bolded statement is correct - but we aren't and I argue that we don't have a any batsmen coming through and it's much more than a generational issue - its a system issue and it's deep seated.
I’d argue that the likes of Jason Sangha, Wil Pucovski, Max Bryant, Jack Edwards are all raw playing domestic cricket at a very young age that have the potential to be great test batsmen when they fully develop.

The future isn’t as bleak as you suggest. There is a lot talent out there.
 

HLM*

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That's not going to change. They want the Test matches over in a hurry, and it has to accommodate the Boxing Day Test at the MCG. BBL has to be played over the Christmas break for the kiddies and $$$$$. There's no way out of this for Australian cricket. The moment Sheffield Shield is ready to resume, an Australian contingent is being shipped off to another part of the world for yet another meaningless series of T20s and ODIs. This is screwing up any chance some like Glen Maxwell has of getting picked for Test cricket.
Well no, this is incorrect. Shield cricket resumes end of February after the Big Bash. Our test players around that time are usually overseas preparing for and starting another test series, for example the South Africa series this year.
 
Jan 14, 2012
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It was very interesting listening to Chris Rogers this morning on the SEN. He's got one of the best cricketing brains I've heard. I feel a lot more confident with him working with the next generation at the centre of excellence and we do have some real quality coming through the younger generation.

It was also interesting hearing him speak about Peter Handscomb, who he has done a fair bit of work with of late. You would think he's be telling us he's 100% back on track and ready to go but he was very honest. He seems to think he's still almost 2 years off getting everything right and being a quality international batsman.
 
Sep 27, 2008
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I've said this before but I was at the SCG for Warne's debut and came away convinced he wouldn't amount to anything.

I don't think anyone did, he got absolutely carted by Shastri and co, it was a tough initiation against India though who are generally the best players of spin.
 
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