Little towarm the heart here but at least Klinger is in from the cold...
The boys tackle issues across the Tasman in the Chappell-Hadlee series and find some negatives and positives Geoff Lemon: There’s a wild wind blowing across Napier tonight. I can hear it outside my window, coming in off the waters of Hawke’s Bay. It’s a mournful sound. An elegy. Pining for a lost cricket match. Adam Collins: What on earth went on there today? From where I was following, the inspection had been run, the toss scheduled… then suddenly we were back to square one? A complete wash out? GL: Not even that. The washing was done. The rain stopped by the scheduled start at 2pm. New Zealand v Australia, second ODI of the ChappellHadlee, after a belter in Auckland. Then they sat there all afternoon saying the outfield was wet. All the body language suggested the captains and umpires weren’t keen on playing, but nor did they make a decision. They were happy to make the crowd wait until nearly 7pm before admitting it. Parlous stuff. AC: Don’t get me wrong, I sympathise with players not wanting to, you know, play. It’s a nice little quirk of our game that cricketers are seldom happier than during a washout, dancing on top of the bar in a Hawaiian shirt. But we wanted to see Marcus Stoinis, after he’d just ripened into Andrew Symonds in the space of one ODI. What even was that? I tell you this: had he pulled it off, it would have been Better Than Bevan. Right? GL: A random drunk Kiwi to me tonight: “That bloke was brilliant for Australia the other day, what was his name, Sausage or something?” I can’t imagine that Sausage didn’t want to play today. Nor why Aaron Finch wasn’t desperate to captain another game for Australia. All those fringe players should have been burning to get out there. But yeah, the Auckland run chase – a guy in his second game, coming in at 5-50, then piling on 11 sixes to nearly chase 280… he averages 150 right now. As you said, what even was that? AC: Yeah, actually 67-6 (see, I respect that this is a UK paper, you heathen) by the time young Sam Heazlett nicked off. Tough gig for him, coming in with virtually no List A experience. As was noted, his selection makes it look harder to get a game for Queensland than Australia. I feel for him – he hasn’t picked himself, and he’s a serious talent. But it got the motors running. Cameron White versus Trevor Hohns is hardly a prize fight, but cricket tragics will get the popcorn. At the risk of having it thrown at me, did they both make good points? GL: I’ll throw it. Exactly half of them made good points. Cam White’s half. He fairly says selections are inconsistent, and the national side looks like a development squad. It does: Heazlett, Mitch Swepson, Billy Stanlake. That sticks in the craw for players who do the business for their state sides and don’t get recognised. White just won Domestic Player of the Year but can’t get a bat in any format. George Bailey’s dumped, Michael Klinger’s finally in the T20 side to face Sri Lanka this month after smashing runs for aeons.Young players are fine, but unproven ones devalue being picked. White notes that, and Hohns basically replies: “Well, he wasn’t
that good when he played for Australia.” Which even if it were true (it isn’t) and even if it were current (he mostly played 2008 to 2011) would be totally irrelevant. Tackle the argument, not the messenger. AC: Yeah, it was poorly thought out. Always going to be the headline, overtaking the more reasonable points he made about White benefitting from the same policy as an unproven 22-yearold.You’re right, though, as is Cam, there has to be the credible dream of ODI cricket for older players just as at Test level (Rogers, Voges) and T20s (Hogg, Hodge, now Klinger. Klinger! Can we talk about him already!). GL: You can, after this point. It wasn’t the same policy. White started getting picked in the Supersub era, wasn’t in the batting XI, then would sub in as a fieldsman and be barely allowed to bowl. When he got back in 2007, it was due to serious runs that season including an unbeaten hundred. The two situations are not similar at all. The chairman of selectors is straight making stuff up. But alternative facts don’t wash here. AC: They’re not welcomed by me either. Okay, before we have to wrap this up. Please tell me why Michael Klinger’s ascension to an Australian side at age 36 is one of the great things in modern cricket? Our British friends and readers have asked us for years why this guy can’t get a game. And sure, it’s a T20 side picked when the Test players aren’t available. But after an awful week for the world, it is the sort of thing that makes you warm inside. This may be my last chance to use this line: when this man debuted, the Millennium Bug was still a real and present danger. GL: It’s a beautiful thing. He’s put in the effort year on year, and been jilted year on year. Finally, when you think despair has won, this one guy gets a hint of recognition. I reckon that’s down to Justin Langer coaching that side: someone who understands the emotional side of cricket. And it means so much to Klinger, who has wanted so badly to play for Australia and has always been frozen out. I have not the faintest idea why that happened. One of that list of hard-doneby players to get similar treatment. He should be in New Zealand right now, by rights, in the ODIs. Then winning the Champions Trophy in England. But at least this chance to wear the national colours on his original home ground, the MCG, on February 17, is a gesture worth making. It will mean everything to him. And for us, especially when things outside are harsh and bleak, we need these warmer stories.
He’s put in the effort, year on year, and been jilted year on year. Finally when you think despair has won, the guy gets a hint of recognition