Australian Cricket

[CrazyQ]

Let me just say as an opposition fan, Australian cricket seems to be losing a lot of their aura and intimidation.

To start off with, leadership is non-existant. Ricky Ponting is clearly not the right choice for the captaincy. Talk is growing louder that he should be replaced but the question is, who will replace him?

There is no obvious replacement. Michael Clarke, even though he is your best bat and next in line, is struggling with his personal life and is quite clearly not ready to take the captaincy off Punter.

Hussey would be my choice and the obvious stand out. He has a cricket brain. Problem is he's 10 years too old.

Aura is another thing. With the Australian teams of the past, they had something about them. They scared the opposition shitless. These days players like North, Watson, Katich, Clarke, Hilfenhaus etc make the team look like school girls.

Something needs to be done. I can see Australian cricket in the shadows for a fair while.

 

[The 747]

Let me just say as an opposition fan, Australian cricket seems to be losing a lot of their aura and intimidation.

To start off with, leadership is non-existant. Ricky Ponting is clearly not the right choice for the captaincy. Talk is growing louder that he should be replaced but the question is, who will replace him?

There is no obvious replacement. Michael Clarke, even though he is your best bat and next in line, is struggling with his personal life and is quite clearly not ready to take the captaincy off Punter.

Hussey would be my choice and the obvious stand out. He has a cricket brain. Problem is he's 10 years too old.

Aura is another thing. With the Australian teams of the past, they had something about them. They scared the opposition shitless. These days players like North, Watson, Katich, Clarke, Hilfenhaus etc make the team look like school girls.

Something needs to be done. I can see Australian cricket in the shadows for a fair while.

Yes, we had 4 or so all time greats in the one side. That kinda helps.

 

[Bomber Bears]

Let me just say as an opposition fan, Australian cricket seems to be losing a lot of their aura and intimidation.

To start off with, leadership is non-existant. Ricky Ponting is clearly not the right choice for the captaincy. Talk is growing louder that he should be replaced but the question is, who will replace him?

There is no obvious replacement. Michael Clarke, even though he is your best bat and next in line, is struggling with his personal life and is quite clearly not ready to take the captaincy off Punter.

Hussey would be my choice and the obvious stand out. He has a cricket brain. Problem is he's 10 years too old.

Aura is another thing. With the Australian teams of the past, they had something about them. They scared the opposition shitless. These days players like North, Watson, Katich, Clarke, Hilfenhaus etc make the team look like school girls.

Something needs to be done. I can see Australian cricket in the shadows for a fair while.

lol. Katich is the toughest bastard in the side and would be the ideal captain at present. Hussey isnt a captain at all.

I think, partly as a product of having such a dominant side, the age group 25-35 never produced many good cricketers, they never got the chance at the higher levels because we had such good players in there, and by the time our last great side went they were past their prime. Clark Katich and Hussey have done alright at time and Haddin is still good, others not so.

Our talent under 25, however, is the best it's been since the emergence of Warne McGrath Langer Hayden Ponting Martyn Slater within about 5 years of each other. The likes of Copeland Hazlewood Hughes Smith Khawaja Maddinson Starc (NSW, with O'Keefe aged 26 or so), Pattinson, George Boyce and arguably Mitch Marsh, although he's presently the most over rated cricketer in Australia, is very promising for the future. Its a matter of introducing them into the side over the next couple of years.

 

[Santana]

FFS, when you lose players like Warne, McGrath, Gilchrist, Hayden, Gillespie, Langer, Martyn, MacGill and others in the space of 3 years what do people really think is going to happen? Did people really think we’d just keep being the number 1 side in the world just like that? No country would be able to handle those kind of losses.

It hasn’t been handled as well as it could have yes, but some people need to get a grip.

 

[frankrizzo]

One thing that really worries is the fielding, you don't need warne and mcgrath to work on your catching.

thats the first thing bobby simpson got us doing in the dark days, work your arse off on your catching.

We are one of the poorest catching teams in world cricket and yet you still hear people rabbiting on about how Australian teams are still great in the field which is quite frankly rubbish.

There has been a steady decline in the catching for 3-4 years now.

 

[davey_magik]

There has been a steady decline in the catching for 3-4 years now.

This.

The fielding in our team during the 06/07 Ashes was crazy, Warney and Punter in the slips (Langer would go into 3rd), Hayden at gully, Clarke at point and Symonds in the cover region.

Now Clarke doesn't seem to be the fielder he once was (I actually don't think he's been fully fit for years), Punter still goes OK but is in the slips and to be honest there isn't much else.

I think this is a silly thread though, of course we are going to go downhill when we lose so many great players, but I agree with Bomber Bears, we have a lot of talent under 25, we just need to bring them into the side and develop them.

 

[krusden]

Let me just say as an opposition fan, Australian cricket seems to be losing a lot of their aura and intimidation.

To start off with, leadership is non-existant. Ricky Ponting is clearly not the right choice for the captaincy. Talk is growing louder that he should be replaced but the question is, who will replace him?

There is no obvious replacement. Michael Clarke, even though he is your best bat and next in line, is struggling with his personal life and is quite clearly not ready to take the captaincy off Punter.

Hussey would be my choice and the obvious stand out. He has a cricket brain. Problem is he's 10 years too old.

Aura is another thing. With the Australian teams of the past, they had something about them. They scared the opposition shitless. These days players like North, Watson, Katich, Clarke, Hilfenhaus etc make the team look like school girls.

Something needs to be done. I can see Australian cricket in the shadows for a fair while.

"Talk is growing louder" from journos as it does EVERY CRICKET TOUR that punter should be replaced.
Fact is, he will never be replaced.... he'll retire or step down but idiot journos attacking him every tour is p***ing me off.

Huss is NOT the obvious choice, he's too busy fighting for his spot and nearly getting sacked each test.

The problem with the current crop of aussie cricketers, and to be more ponted "supporters" and casual fans, is that they are compared to the Golden Era of the last 10 or so years or essentially 1995/6 - 2007.
However this ignores the fact that it was dominated by two wicket taking freaks in warney and mcgrath and the odd run-scoring freak like haydos, langer, steve waugh and gilly.
Previous to this Era, aussie cricket was very middle of the road and was composed of tough, nuggety fighters and angry quicks - those of us old enough remember the 80s and early 90s when Australia was routinely bounced, frightened and smashed into next week by the great Windies sides much the same as we are being smashed by a pretty good indian side in the last few years.
Australian cricket isn't in too much of a bad state with the current crop almost ready to be replaced by your khawajas, steve smith and tim paine's of the shield system. the only thing is when they do come in they should have REALISTIC expectations placed on them - ie khawaja shouldn't be seen as the "next steve waugh", paine "the next gilly" etc.

 

[Simmonds2Hislop]

Let me just say as an opposition fan, Australian cricket seems to be losing a lot of their aura and intimidation.

To start off with, leadership is non-existant. Ricky Ponting is clearly not the right choice for the captaincy. Talk is growing louder that he should be replaced but the question is, who will replace him?

There is no obvious replacement. Michael Clarke, even though he is your best bat and next in line, is struggling with his personal life and is quite clearly not ready to take the captaincy off Punter.

If there's no one else good enough maybe Punter is the right choice. The best of a bad bunch perhaps?

Aura is another thing. With the Australian teams of the past, they had something about them. They scared the opposition shitless. These days players like North, Watson, Katich, Clarke, Hilfenhaus etc make the team look like school girls.

McGrath looked pretty terrifying.

 

[CrazyQ]

Fair responses.

May I ask, where are all those arrogant fans who blasted their opinions on this forum that "Australia will never be ranked lower than 2" or "Australian cricket will never decline, we have too much talent" or even the greatest myth of all time "We will never drop because our State teams are better than most International teams" ?

I'm glad most have changed their minds.

 

[The 747]

Fair responses.

May I ask, where are all those arrogant fans who blasted their opinions on this forum that "Australia will never be ranked lower than 2" or "Australian cricket will never decline, we have too much talent" or even the greatest myth of all time "We will never drop because our State teams are better than most International teams" ?

I'm glad most have changed their minds.

Well they probably didn't factor in the era of inexplicable selection decisions. And at the time we had a gun side the State teams were better than international sides.

But whatever I hope this thread makes you feel good supporter of unlisted team.....

 

[amer]

Doesn't matter how good or proud you are, you'll have a down period at some stage. And at the end of the day we've only been down for what, a couple of seasons. We were still a juggernaut right up until Lee and Clark broke down, which was late 2008. That was the turning point. The thing you can bank on despite all the negativity at present is that eventually the penny will drop, shit will hit the fan and there'll be a real strong reassessment made of ourselves and our goals. You're stupid if you think it'll just continue meandering like this; new stars will rise and we'll find our way to the top again. There are likely types emerging; Hazlewood is the best fast bowling prospect in the country, there's Copeland, Pattinson, Khawaja, Maddinson, Mitch Marsh, Wade etc etc.. We'll be back.

We haven't lost this Ashes series either; we've played one draw. This is still eminently winnable, particularly if we make the necessary changes to our bowling attack. And another thing - I can't help but laugh at the international press, eg Nasser Hussain, deriding us and bring on the doomsday prophecies, yet they continue to push the line that the sides are evenly matched. Double standards much?

 

[courtjester]

Fair responses.

May I ask, where are all those arrogant fans who blasted their opinions on this forum that "Australia will never be ranked lower than 2" or "Australian cricket will never decline, we have too much talent" or even the greatest myth of all time "We will never drop because our State teams are better than most International teams" ?

I'm glad most have changed their minds.

In that period of Australian dominance, our second XI or most of our state teams would have smashed other test nations.

Guys like Haddin, Hodge, Mike Hussey, Katich, MacGill, Kasprowicz, Bichel couldn't get a regular spot in the test side.

No one has changed their mind, it was a fact that 6 years ago we probably had the greatest team ever. Now we have a normal team.

 

[krisholio14]

It's a twofold thing IMO.

As is inevitable, other sides have raised their games. Australia has been fortunate that they got their house in order and woke up to being fully professional 20 years before everyone else did.

On the flipside, the Australian selectors have to stop playing favorites. It's all very well to take this selection policy when you have a half dozen all time greats in your side, but now that's not the case, how about picking sides on form/merit as opposed to whether you're in the boys club or not?

There is still plenty of talent getting around in this country, how about giving some of them a go when they warrant it, instead of picking guys based on past glories, guarantees that have been made or whether you're well liked?

 

[KiwiRoo]

In that period of Australian dominance, our second XI or most of our state teams would have smashed other test nations.

Guys like Haddin, Hodge, Mike Hussey, Katich, MacGill, Kasprowicz, Bichel couldn't get a regular spot in the test side.

No one has changed their mind, it was a fact that 6 years ago we probably had the greatest team ever. Now we have a normal team.

yes your state sides would probably have beaten a lot of the test nations 5-6 years ago when i thought the standard of test cricket was very poor
But the other nations have improved now..The Indians , South Africans, Pom's, Sri lanka are all much better sides than 5-6 years ago.

Aussie will come back, but it may take time especially when Ponting, Hussey etc retire

 

[Bomber Bears]

Beofre Brisbane Hussey had averaged about 25 over 7 test matches, his loss isnt a huge one. Even Ponting has average about 43 across the last 4 years, his loss will not be fel near as bad as it would've a few years back.

I think there is a real lack of bowling talent at the moment. India are number one in the world with an attack that is pedestrian at best outside India and not all that great within India. South Africa have Steyn and Morkel but no spinners, Mendis has some talent but performances arent great and Sri Lanka doesnt want to play Malinga, Pakistan who knows whether they'll play again, Kiwi attacks poor and most of the good Australian bowlers are a couple of years off being good test bowlers. West Indies have Kemar Roach who is very impressive, and England have some decent talent (in particular Finn) but all need a bit of help with conditions.

 

[TassieSaint]

Pakistan has the most promising attack atm for me. Amir and Asif in particular could be a very damaging pair if Pakistan ever get their shit together (unlikely). But I agree there is a dirth of genuine quality attacks atm.

 

[Bomber Bears]

Pakistan has the most promising attack atm for me. Amir and Asif in particular could be a very damaging pair if Pakistan ever get their shit together (unlikely). But I agree there is a dirth of genuine quality attacks atm.

Very good, but who knows what will happen re betting scandal

 

[KiwiRoo]

Beofre Brisbane Hussey had averaged about 25 over 7 test matches, his loss isnt a huge one. Even Ponting has average about 43 across the last 4 years, his loss will not be fel near as bad as it would've a few years back.


I agree Hussey & Ponting havent been as productive..but which batsmen has taken up the slack ?..Watson maybe ?..But hes been more falliable lately too.

Your batting isnt as dominant as it was & has suffered numerous middle order collapses recently. It will take time for younger batsmen to fill the gap. It took Ponting a few years before he was a world class batsmen and he is a sensational talent..

ands as for the worlds bowling...Probably symptomatic of the worlds pitches..they're just roads now..gone are the days of the pitch doing a bit on the first day

 

[Doodlesweaver]

One thing that really worries is the fielding, you don't need warne and mcgrath to work on your catching.

thats the first thing bobby simpson got us doing in the dark days, work your arse off on your catching.

We are one of the poorest catching teams in world cricket and yet you still hear people rabbiting on about how Australian teams are still great in the field which is quite frankly rubbish.

There has been a steady decline in the catching for 3-4 years now.

The Aussie catching is poor. But they have been pretty poor since the Indian tour in 2007/8? Man, they dropped some catches that series. I remember hoping that I never, even had to see Clarke in slips to the quicks again. He was horrible.

Those nine commentators always go on saying 'he never drops those' about the players but it's such a load of bs.

 

[Bomber Bears]

Beofre Brisbane Hussey had averaged about 25 over 7 test matches, his loss isnt a huge one. Even Ponting has average about 43 across the last 4 years, his loss will not be fel near as bad as it would've a few years back.


I agree Hussey & Ponting havent been as productive..but which batsmen has taken up the slack ?..Watson maybe ?..But hes been more falliable lately too.

Your batting isnt as dominant as it was & has suffered numerous middle order collapses recently. It will take time for younger batsmen to fill the gap. It took Ponting a few years before he was a world class batsmen and he is a sensational talent..

ands as for the worlds bowling...Probably symptomatic of the worlds pitches..they're just roads now..gone are the days of the pitch doing a bit on the first day

Dont let bigfooty sway you, Clarke average about 55 over the last 4 years. His recent from (ie Pakistan games onwards) is a concern. Dont know why they moved him from 5 to be honest was excellent in that role.

 

[beatnik]

no s##t Sherlock!

this is either a stir-up or the lamest opening post ever...we are number 5 in the world and struggling against the 4th-placed poms at home - I would say our aura has long gone

the English are mediocre in my books which makes us about that mark or slightly less than that on current form

that said, Day 1 in Test 2 is pretty much the same as Day 1 in Test 1 so let's just wait and see how this Test pans out before we jump off any balconies

peace

 

[crownie]

news flash: The Australian cricket team has not always been good