SELECTORS SEND WRONG MESSAGE
It’s been a sorry time for Australian cricket and it feels like there is no hiding place at the moment. I’m not sure where it’s best to be right now, back home where the mood will be pretty dark, or over here where I live in the north of England. The Poms are loving every minute of this.
After Australia lost so heavily to Sri Lanka, I think there was a general feeling that that was an isolated incident. Well, not isolated, but losing on the sub-continent comes with a level of acceptance. I am not saying a three-zip scoreline is acceptable, but people were looking ahead to the summer back home thinking the corner would quickly be turned.
But it’s been a nightmare. The batting, through a combination of batsmen lacking skills and not thinking positively, has pushed Australia to the brink of being whitewashed by a South African side that is lacking the contributions of Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel and AB de Villiers.
Naturally, there is a lot of finger pointing here. Adam Voges has come under serious pressure. But Adam, like so many other players in that top-order, was scoring heaps of runs before the debacle in Sri Lanka. So where has it all gone wrong?
Voges is a good friend of mine, and I can tell you there are few tougher cricketers out in the middle. But he, along with so many other players, is looking constantly over his shoulder. There is an air of uncertainty in that dressing room, and I really believe that comes from the top.
Before the series, the selectors publicly called out Mitch Marsh and put him on notice. They claimed Mitch needed to score runs in order to keep his place. Come on! Mitch Marsh knows this; he knows he has to deliver in the middle. Does he, or any other player, need that pressure put on him publicly?
Yes, the players have to take responsibility; yes, they have to dig in and ride out a quality bowling attack.You deal with out-of-form players in the dressing room. Winning creates a great culture and losing a bad one, but you don’t put your players in the spotlight like the selectors did.
Saying that, players can also help themselves. Usman Khawaja’s decision to criticise the selectors at the start of the series (for being made a scapegoat after his omission
The selectors publicly put Mitch Marsh on notice by saying he needs runs. Does he need that pressure put on him?
from the side for the final Test in Sri Lanka) was pretty average. Again, if there are issues, you deal with them behind closed doors; you should never go to the media.
Australia can turn this around, but to do so the right message needs to be sent to the players. CEO James Sutherland has stated that big changes will be made for the final Test, while the batsmen have been sent back to Shield cricket to fight for their careers. Why not make that call when it needs to be made? What happens if Voges goes back to Western Australia and scores a bucketload?
Players need to score runs and play with responsibility, but administrators need to do their jobs better, too. Everything rolls down the hill…