Where Australian Cricket all started going wrong.

[The OBSTacle]

Replacing Michael Kasprowicz with Brett Lee due to marketing pressure.

Ever since that day Australian cricket values have been askew and we have become weaker over time.

 

[Rookie]

A little bit after that if memory serves me correctly, but the moment I look back on was our failure to let Matthew Hayden go when his form dropped off badly.

 

[Bomber Bears]

Preperation for the 09 Ashes IMO. Woeful

 

[Doodlesweaver]

The India tour 2008. If I didn't know the Aussies were on the slide before, I knew then.

A wicket-keeper who threw his glove at the ball, a skipper who did really weird things and bowlers who couldn't take wickets.

The Saffers chasing down a record total at the WACA was a real nail in the coffin.

 

[Hellgood]

Anyone read today's Australian? Apparently we're getting some American corporate guru to come and have one on one sessions with our players. Can imagine thats going to really work

 

[damochandler]

not bowling yorkers at dale stey and his mates on day 3 of the boxing day test in 2008. i knew than things are going to get worse

the oval just proved how pathetic our selectors were going to become

 

[Doodlesweaver]

Anyone read today's Australian? Apparently we're getting some American corporate guru to come and have one on one sessions with our players. Can imagine thats going to really work

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/new...to-grill-players/story-e6frg7mf-1226032283060

According to the article, this dude's remit 'falls outside the game'.

So it's all about personal development then. Can't the bowlers just learn to bowl line and length instead of effing well navel-gazing?

 

[The Passenger]

during that period Brett Lee was out of the test team in the 18 months prior to the 2005 ashes he was still the highest earning cricketer in australia from marketing and sponsorship, and still about 4th or 5th in direct wages from cricket australia. pretty handy for a 12th man.

 

[Borry]

When South Africa gave us a touch up on our home turf.

 

[larrikin]

Warne and McGrath retiring. They gave so much cover for our bats, who while being good, are made to look better because of what was happening when we were in the field.

Was always going to happen...

 

[The Governor]

From the day SK Warne, Glen McGrath and Justin Langer retired, the Australian selectors should have started to plan for 2009 and 2013 by identifying youngsters who were going to play test cricket for Australia.

There was no point in the selectors picking mature age batsmen to replace Langer, Martyn and Symonds. With all great dynasties, you need to blood in youth whilst the senior warriors have a couple of seasons left in the tank. The Golden Retriever and his dumb cronies picked Katich, North, Haddin and Rogers ahead of Ferguson, White, David Hussey, Aaron Finch etc.

The second warning signal was the selectors giving players the chance to announce their retirement when their form was on the slide. Hilditch gave the players too much power whilst Trevor Hohns was a hard and tough selector until he became tired of the job!!

When Trevor Hohns became tired of his role, he started to become a soft selector. The day he allowed Steve Waugh to continue as captain after his heroic effort in Sydney in January 2003 was a huge mistake. The decision gave the players a signal that they can boss the Chairman of Selectors.

With our test cricketers being on fat million dollar contracts, I think the selectors have become too close to the players!! A player has a limited amount of time from 22 to 35 to achieve permanent financial security in cricket. When Matthew Hayden suffered a drop in form in 2008, the selectors should have tapped him on the shoulder to tell him to call it quits!!

THE GOV

 

[Caesar]

There was no point in the selectors picking mature age batsmen to replace Langer, Martyn and Symonds. With all great dynasties, you need to blood in youth whilst the senior warriors have a couple of seasons left in the tank. The Golden Retriever and his dumb cronies picked Katich, North, Haddin and Rogers ahead of Ferguson, White, David Hussey, Aaron Finch etc.

You realise that Duss is older than North and Haddin?

 

[Cooldude]

When they started treating Stuey Clark like crap despite still being one of the best in the world

 

[peternorth]

warne and mcgrath retiring

 

[DREAM TEAM BUFF]

Lack of young players getting blooded in to the team

 

[DREAM TEAM BUFF]

Also no real stand out spinner in Australia

 

[The Governor]

The Golden Retriever and Merv Hughes held the strong opinion that adopting a short term top up approach to re-structuring the batting order was the answer to our woes. THey held the belief that we were the number 1 test nation in the world after South Africa beat us at home in 2009-09 and we lost the Ashes series in the UK in 09.

The media and the public were afraid to see the truth after South Africa beat us in Australia in 2008-09 and after our disastrous UK tour in 2009.

And, you have Mark Anthony Taylor talking the positive aspects of Australian cricket since he is a board member of CA on Channel 9!! Gee, was not he one of the board members who approved the contract extensions of Hilditch and Nielsen?

Finally, Australian cricket is in a mess when CA appoint Taylor onto the independent review panel whilst he is a board member of CA. Is not this a conflict of interest?

THE GOV

 

[Drugs Are Bad Mackay?]

Shifting the cricket academy from Adelaide to Brisbane in 2004.

The other states whinged and moaned that their best players were being taken out of their programs for too long. It was basically a live in program in Adelaide, almost 12 months of the year. Bevan and Berry played for SA while they were attending the academy before playing for their home states later on. Attendees played grade cricket in Adelaide as part of the program, though this started gettign stripped back in later years due to the complaints of the other states.

A few Adelaide Academy graduates... M Clarke, M Bevan, G Blewett, N Bracken, A Gilchrist, J Gillespie, M Kasprowicz, S Katich, J Langer, B Lee, S MacGill, D Martyn, G McGrath, R Ponting, M Slater, A Symonds, S Warne...

Since moving to the Centre of Excellence in Queensland the production of world class cricketers has largely ceased. Now it is basically a cricket 'drop in centre' where players go to get a brief period of tuition in the winter but spend the bulk of their time within their state/grade programs.

 

[Phone]

the day cameron white got a baggygreen

Also no real stand out spinner in Australia

are people still using this line? would have thought people accepted that hauritz is actually pretty handy by now

 

[Kyptastic]

during that period Brett Lee was out of the test team in the 18 months prior to the 2005 ashes he was still the highest earning cricketer in australia from marketing and sponsorship, and still about 4th or 5th in direct wages from cricket australia. pretty handy for a 12th man.

Your point? Brett Lee was Twelfth man pretty much all those tests he missed, and I'm pretty sure that a Twelfth man gets the same match payments as the others. Plus, he would have been playing all those one dayers, and it's not like he was out of the team because he was poor, Kaspa was legitimitely keeping him out of the team. And, Lee was our second best bowler in that Ashes - Kaspa didn't exactly set the world alight in the matches he ended up playing. Picking Lee was one of the better decisions the selectors made that tour.

PS. Does anyone else think that The Governor would make an excellent Ministry of Truth employee from 1984?

 

[The Passenger]

i know what you're saying but the point is that there was a clear shift around that time to the marketing value of a player versus the cricketing value of a player...

it's only a little thing but it's kinda indicative of the shifting priorites of cricket australia.

gideon haigh wrote a great article during the summer. one of his remarks was "you'd be mistaken for thinking cricket australia was a marketing company which dabbles in cricket on the side"

 

[Johnson#26]

For mine, it was the 2008 Sydney Test and the aftermath. Aussie cricket's been stuffed ever since IMO. Has become seriously soft. The downfall of Symonds a case in point. So sad to see such a great team ethos and culture (looking in from the outside) get destroyed so badly. It's become so soft ever since.

I mean, North, Haddin - please.

For those looking at the Lee/Kaspa decision, I'm not sold on that one as a marketing purpose - Lee's ODI form in England was way above and beyond that of Kaspa's (and Dizzy's) in the NatWest Series. What's more, he was left out for the first two Tests of the 02/03 Ashes when Bichel was in far better form.

 

[mattymac]

Shifting the cricket academy from Adelaide to Brisbane in 2004.

The other states whinged and moaned that their best players were being taken out of their programs for too long. It was basically a live in program in Adelaide, almost 12 months of the year. Bevan and Berry played for SA while they were attending the academy before playing for their home states later on. Attendees played grade cricket in Adelaide as part of the program, though this started gettign stripped back in later years due to the complaints of the other states.

A few Adelaide Academy graduates... M Clarke, M Bevan, G Blewett, N Bracken, A Gilchrist, J Gillespie, M Kasprowicz, S Katich, J Langer, B Lee, S MacGill, D Martyn, G McGrath, R Ponting, M Slater, A Symonds, S Warne...

Since moving to the Centre of Excellence in Queensland the production of world class cricketers has largely ceased. Now it is basically a cricket 'drop in centre' where players go to get a brief period of tuition in the winter but spend the bulk of their time within their state/grade programs.

this. the academy is a joke now. and who the hell's idea was it to make troy cooley head coach. wtf? not exactly the best money can buy. when did we start underinvesting in key appointments at the highest level. the selectors and coaches are jokes compared to the talent thats available on the market

plus a lot of our best coaching talent has been going overseas for a while now

 

[Kid Presentable]

When they started to allow players to wear bathers instead of underpants.

But yeah, when Warne and McGrath retired.

 

[Phone]

ICEBATHs