I have been following Test cricket since the late 70s. So I have seen many of our very best cricketers ply their trade. Sure Australian cricket has had its ups and downs..but nothing like what it is going thru at the moment. Leading the way into our despair has been our batting. How many embarrassing collapses has shaped our cricket over the past three years..too many.  We are handing nations the game because our batsmen have forgotten.. well how to bat like Test match batsmen. I maintain Australia's dire red ball problems lie in junior cricket.  When I coached junior cricket back in the 90s it was all red ball cricket. These days the emphasis is on white ball cricket and getting little Johnny to play T20 Blast..Tho some red ball cricket is still being played at U14 level.. it has evidently taken a back seat to the white ball stuff.  All our national Under 15/17/19 championships, part of CA Pathways Program, are limited overs played with the White Kookaburra. Therein lies the root of the problem imho.  It has to take the blame for the current parlous state of  Australian Test batting. As we all know the emphasis on short format cricket is to score as many runs in the time given as is humanly possible.. There is no urgency by our coaches to teach a boy or a girl how to maintain time at the crease, or use a correct technique..eg; how to defend a ball under your eyeline.  Or how to play the cover drive using a hi elbow instead of how to execute a reverse sweep. Instead of being tutored in the use of the feet to counter spin they are tutored in the risky slog sweep.  There are simply too many bad habits creeping into cricket during the formative years. This has to change.  CA made the problem it alone can fix it. 

We aren't the only ones to have 20-20 and odis though. Why are we uniquely declining

Poor junior coaching.

what has changed about junior coaching?

What I described in my opening piece. Has to be that. Why are we suddenly producing batsmen that are not Test standard. Has to be an underlying reason. What do you think is the reason?

The rest of the world has caught up finally?

England has the same problem, and India this year has dropped Dhawan, Rahul, Vijay, Rohit...

You saying the bowling side of cricket has finally played catch up with us?  If so I agree. The calibre of bowler, specially African, being produced by the Saffers is  arguably better than many white bowlers they have had in the past. If Bumrah is an example of what India is churning out at the MRF then India has a big future home and away. Australia has borne the brunt of both those attacks and came out second best. Same as we did in the UAE. Our current batsmen lack the basic technical skills to combat the moving ball. Has been the case for several years at home. Overseas it has been the case for going on decades. Every 4 years get our bums spanked by the Poms in their conditions.because we are not conditioned to those conditions and are not training for those conditions. Our blokes see a moving ball and panic resulting in a sloppy get out shot. Likewise in India. We just dont produce spinning decks often to acclimatise our domestic players in sub continental conditions. 

This is an epic time for bowlers globally. India finally has an attack leader of world class standard. Not a world class all-rounder, a world class attack leader. 

The South African production of fast bowlers is immense, Duane Oliver just won them the first test playing after Philander injured and Ngidi "dropped". They lose Abbott and MMorkel to Kolpak retirement - they still have spares... I've never seen anything like it - I sweat it usurps if not ties the early 1980's WI depth if looked at from a retrospective position of 2 years ago ...

Right now they have 6 ridiculously high quality quicks - despite Abbot and MMorkel leaving...

England has batsman problems, but they have thought creatively around it to make a very balanced team that wins more than it loses. India's batting is weak right now. Seriously.

Rohit averaed mid twenties this year, Rahane 30, Pujara has cashed in in Australia to sneak up to 38, but Pant is a hoirrid wicket keeper selected for his runs. They've dropped Dhawan, Rahul, and Vijay. Vihari isn't firing. I mean - since Dravid and Tendulkar - this is the weakest Indian batting, if not since Vengasarkar, Gav and Azzra...

Pakistan have continued their production of quality seamers, but where they're improving is on the batting front. Babar Azam is scoring plenty with support from Sohail and co, plus they still have Farkar Zahman in reserve once Imam Ul Haq get dropped.

This was a very good year for bowlers.

What I am saying is that the world of cricket has caught upto Australia. Now not every team is going to beat Aus in Aus, but they're not going to let Aus beat them at home. And the ones who do that, then plan on beating Aus in Aus. Australia needs to find bowlers who hold the seam straight, release it straight and either swing or seam it. Because this cross seamer as the stock ball aint working aint the best plan of attack right now.

You saying our best seamer Josh Hazlewood is sacrificing his skill and hurting his career by being told to bowl cross seamers as his stock ball? A ball that is more prevalent in short format cricket.

I'm saying I see a stack load of cross seam balls delivered by all three Aus seamers - and only Cummins with great stats.... and no other team in the world is doing it... AT ALL!

cummins bowls a lot of cross seam deliveries

I suspect more than the others

It might be to get more variation in the deviation. One ball moves the next one is straight

You hit the nail on the head when you mention the ages. U14, the kids have just left primary school, really that's the time we see future talent? Who has been training them, teachers in after school programs, training 1 or 2 hours a week after school for a Saturday morning game.

Then CA hand out Future Pathway recipients, which is purely a bias decision based on a couple of individuals. By doing this CA are saying these are the ones to watch, they receive the training camps etc, and as they progress through the ages they remain the recipients. Meanwhile at such a young age many young 14 15 16 year olds that may actually have talent, play school level and if their parents are lucky enough to be in a good financial position may allow them to play for a club. We are talking about 14 - 16 year old kids that are deciding where their futures lie, some will concentrate on other sports, school work etc.

Throughout the history of the game, a 19 year old is the lauching pad, they went on to play club level, then may pick up a state contract, play futures league, then state, then play for Australia, whilst doing this the standard of bowling faced improves and the talented adjust their games through training, improvements are made this way.

CA pathways pathways program just like CA contracts, reduce the player pool available and we see disillusioned kids leave the game. Look at the last U19 WC who was the best batsman for Australia? Nathan McSweeney, the only one to have played Futures League at the time and had scored a century in Futures. He didn't even play the first game for Australia. Who did McSweeney replace?... Austin Waugh, whose dad is? Get the picture

So yes CA made the problem, so CA can fix the problem by scraping the program and investing the money elsewhere so all can benefit. Let all the states run their training camps, move these camps around the states so country players can benefit etc. 

As far as this "classical" technique goes, you are right in some regards, but repetition of these motions creates muscle memory and that is only achieved through many hours of training, and that requires dedication. The classical batsmen apart from Greg Chappell have been average at test level, eg M Waugh Usman Khawaja. The best we have produced such as Border, Ponting, Hayden, Langer, S Waugh, S Smith are the best because they were dedicated to the game and that is 90% of the talent, none of them would be called a classical batsman. They developed ways of dealing with problem areas by working hours in the nets, training, playing overseas, sometimes on their own dollar.

You know what these Pathway programs, CA contracts etc breeds? Arrogance! We are talking about teenagers here "How good am I, I have a Cricket Pathways contract, I don't need to train, I'm that good". Dedication is seen by the training camps, who is prepared to do hours of additional training, working with bowling machines while the others are mucking around. Who listens to the coaches. These are the players we want. Players are playing currently for that CA contract, doing just enough to maintain that contract, no sign of any improvement in the majority of players. No dedication.

It is to get variable height of bounce off the seam, not lateral deviation...

You know what these Pathway programs, CA contracts etc breeds? Arrogance! We are talking about teenagers here "How good am I, I have a Cricket Pathways contract, I don't need to train, I'm that good". Dedication is seen by the training camps, who is prepared to do hours of additional training, working with bowling machines while the others are mucking around. Who listens to the coaches. These are the players we want. Players are playing currently for that CA contract, doing just enough to maintain that contract, no sign of any improvement in the majority of players. No dedication. 

 Mike.