BRETT GEEVES: AN AWKWARD PROCESS, BUT THE BEST KEEPER WINS
WITH former Tasmanian Tiger, Scott Kremerskothen, being announced as the new selector for Tasmania, to partner his lifelong mate in head coach Adam Griffith, I had an eerie feeling that the first key selection to be made was to bring the band back together.
Tim Paine would be a certain starter v Victoria. And I was right. At the time, this selection felt like the type of boys’ clubbery we’d seen from the previous holders of the cricket decisions at Cricket Tasmania.
“It’s what mates do” is not a new disease for cricket, particularly in Tasmania.
How else can you justify the selection of a 33-year-old whose last three shield batting seasons look like this? 2016-17: 26.00 2015-16: 6.85 2014-15: 17.76
That’s an average of 16.87 across the past three seasons.
This decision was not made under the guise of sound logic. Pick your best keeper? I’d buy into that. It is an argument no one in Australian cricket will debate. Tim Paine is the best keeper in the country. That is just a fact.
But that logic is not a counter argument in this Tasmanian-based reselection. Why? Because Paine stood at first slip while Mathew Wade played backstop.
Tim Paine was selected as a batsman.
And it’s why the theory of this selection being a CA directive, and not fuelled by boys’ club motive, is one that holds form against the decisions made in the most recent shield game v Victoria.
First, Tasmania is desperate for a win. And has been for quite a while.
Well, that opportunity presented itself only days ago v Victoria when their young bowling group dismantled the Vics for 144 in the first innings. And then, thanks to the classiest version of Alex Doolan, piled on big runs to build a healthy led.
With rain forecast for the first two sessions of day four, why wouldn’t they settle with a 330-run lead and let their red hot bowling group clean up the Vics?
Captain George Bailey saw this and was the keenest member of the decision panel to pull that trigger. Heck, wins are the order of the day for Tassie right now!
But was the late declaration based on a CA direction to get Paine batting time?
Meantime, with the lead ballooning to 435 (not chased since 1931 at the MCG) and Paine creeping his way to 71 not out, the Victorians stood in the field bemused to the point of humour by the delay of the declaration, knowing that rain was on the way and that, ult- imately, their first-innings collapse would be saved by Tasmania’s push of Paine.
At 5-100 at the end of day four, you feel that Tasmania was just one extra session away from cleaning up the Victorian tail, which they did in record time in the first innings.
All the while, Matty Wade watched on as his Test match career was being buried by his teammate.
That is all levels of awk- ward, for everyone involved — especially Painey, who I know would have wanted the best thing for the team.
It is sad, you know. Shield cricket is now just another pawn in the chess board of the code.
The best teams aren’t picked, the games are manufactured as glorified practice for Test aspirants and while there is no I in the “One Team” mantra rolled out by Cricket Australia, there is an I in shield — and while the relevance in that is cryptic, it makes me a sad panda.
Regardless of what you believe, the logic applied by Cricket Australia in their decision to pick Tim Paine is clear and easily justified. Given the lack of runs from any wicketkeepers in the race for the Gabba — bar Cameron Bancroft, who is obviously perceived as still too raw at Test level for backstop — the selectors have picked the man they believe to be the best keeper.
And no one can argue with that. Tim has always — and I mean ALWAYS — been touted as the cleanest keeper in the country.
It is just a shame that a Dirk Nannes thunderbolt shattered a finger during an exhibition game at the Gabba all those years ago, because Paine was on the rise. And you feel that this is the opportunity he was worthy of eight years ago.
Shield cricket is another pawn in the chess board of the code. The best teams aren’t picked and the games are manufactured as glorified practice for Test aspirants.