Yep agree with that. I watched a video the other day of VVS Laxman's first test hundred in Sydney - after 20 tests he only had an average of 20 or so. They stuck with the selection and look how good he turned out. 

yes its been baffling that we pick such old batters to debut while being impatient with young batters with solid first class averages. It often takes 20 test matches to climatize. So many world class or even good players have an average of 30 after 10 tests. But by the time an aging batsmen climatizes their career is over apart from the occasional quick adapter

I feel that the Australian cricket team is in the same place the Socceroos were when Holger resigned. We were too reliant on older, complacent, underperforming players, and were playing without pride or mongrel. Postecoglou brought through the next generation of players before they were really ready - it was very painful at first, but in the medium term we ended up winning a huge piece of silverware. 

One policy that needs to die quickly is picking batsmen over the age of 32 to make their debut. If it works, we get maybe 3-4 useful years out of them. If they fail after one series, that's wasted time we could have spent giving a younger player an opportunity. 

We've tried this "pick an older batsman policy" for about 8 years, and so far the only success stories are Michael Hussey (who debuted at 30 and should have been picked earlier) and Chris Rogers (who was great but only for 25 tests). In the same time we've had Shaun Marsh, Callum Ferguson and Voges, all of whom have been failures to various degrees. We also hung on to Watson and Haddin for too long. We even had Joe Burns come in and score two hundreds, before he had two bad games in Sri Lanka and the selectors went back to Shaun Marsh. What the fuck?

We have paid the penalty for not picking young batsmen. If you look at the top batsmen in the world right now - Kohli, Williamson, Root and Smith, they all got picked in the test squad before the age of 25 - in some cases as young as 21. Clarke got picked really young, got dropped, then fixed up his game and came back the best batsman in the world. So did Smith. And Khawaja. Kane Williamson averaged under 35 for the first two years, but they stuck with him and now he's the finest batsman New Zealand have produced since Martin Crowe. 

How good would Bancroft, Burns, Handscombe, Jake Lehmann or countless others be now if they'd been given more of an opportunity earlier? If they fail, so be it. But at least they'll learn something from the experience of failing, and they'll still have time to go back to Shield cricket and fix it. As much as I ragged on Mitchell Marsh, at least the selectors gave him a chance to fail. 

When the Pakistan series comes around I'd like to see the selectors drop Voges, Ferguson, Nevill, Siddle, and maybe Mennie, and pick some really young guys to replace them. 

Neroli Matthews from Fox Sports just tweeted this:

"I asked Smith what he needs as skipper... he says he needs some players who are willing to fight & show some pride in the baggy green."

Ouch. 

its shocking

improving the selection would help a little


But there is a real problem with our development

Got to the game at 11.40am looking forward to a day's cricket, only to find Australia 8 for 151!

Australia lost 8-41 in less than a full session - all out for 161, following a first innings of 85!

Australia lost this Test match in almost only 2 days of cricket.

interesting to read this.

 Live at the venue, I knew the pressure was great and the Aussies had to battle to survive.

Australia did well to be only 2-121 at stumps. 


From viewing live, Smith's footwork looked good quickly after he arrived at the crease. Kawaja seemed to play and miss a lot, but played some cracking shots late in the day.

The South African bowling looked very accurate. I wasn't quite behind the wicket, so I'm not sure if it was conventional swing, seam or reverse swing that the South Africans bowled.

Hazelwood looked to be in very good rhythm live, whereas Starc didn't. Hazelwood was the second fastest bowler in the game at 145 kph, behind Starc at 147kph. Mennie looks to be no more than a Shield plodder. It would make a huge difference if Pattinson and Cummins were match fit.


For anyone who only watches cricket, or sport in general exclusively on TV, it is so much better live if one has a seat with a reasonable view.

Like I said the other day it didn't matter who South Africa picked (Abbott or Morkel) they've got the best group of quicks going around at the moment. 

This is why I'm quick to jump on talk that our bowlers are doing a great job or that someone like Starc is the best in the world, as clearly from what we've seen from South Africa they are on another couple of levels on both as a team and an individual level. 

We did very well to survive that only two down. SA were beating the bat 2-3 times an over through some parts of that session. 

Begs the question - where was that fight in the first innings?

it was definitely dsciplined bowling but Aussies fought pretty well and both wickets we lost were bad luck more than anything

This is some of the best test fast bowling I've seen. Abbott and Rabada are absolutely on fire. Relentless pressure.

"Make South Aftica bat again" - Ian Healy channeling Donald Trump

Kyle Abbott is bowling a beautiful spell here. South Africa are putting constant pressure on us. This is really good stuff.

I have to say we have had sustained bad luck for a long time
This is a 6 out of 10 team but bad luck can turn a 6 out of 10 performance into a 4 out of 10performance
then again 12 months ago I felt 6 out of 10 performances were looking like 8 out of 10 performances...

Burns gets squeezed down leg, then it rains. Sums up the summer 

maybe we should time waste before taking that last wicket...what is that decentric always says about rhthym changes in football?

look I'm enjoying the fact that the ball is zinging around again after the rain after a session and a half of looking much easier batting....but I'm conscious of the fact that Australia could have to bat while conditions are still very difficult!

If they can survive an early onslaught conditions should improve

De Kock and Bavuma have scored 100 so far this morning, By doing nothing more than staying patient, batting carefully and smacking the bad ball.

...and just as I say that, De Kock gets bowled.

south africa rarely loose wickets in clumps and they are less likely to get out due to a lapse in concentration. Its a big difference so far between the two teams.

Meanwhile there is nothing wrong with our pitches. Its just the quality of the team. Passable (but not great) quality is there but I really don't think the selectors are picking our best squads

Bavuma and de Kock are doing a good job. The difference in their mental attitude is noticeable.

I've just been on the beach in front of Bellerive Oval. It is freezing! This is the dampest, coldest weather  pattern we get - a southerly! It has been a shocking, windy, cool, wet spring. I'm assuming Melbourne have had similar spring weather to date.

The TCA Members Section has a great viewing vantage  point outside. It is elevated right up to the boundary.  Except it can be cold with a southerly blowing. Inside the TCA Members it is warm and comfortable, but one cannot hear the sound of the game, the spectators, appeals or bat hitting ball.

It is still raining - just.

Play should start at 10 am if the rain stops. The sun shone through the clouds of a few minutes.

Grazor and Lastbroadcast.

LOL!


From a parochial perspective, probably true though!

yeah we really didn't give them many scoring opportunities did we?

best day of test cricket we've had this summer

well I thought the two teams were pretty even today

We are all feeling it.

However, we were thrilled to get all  yesterday's play in. It should dry off tomorrow and we should still see a result. 

In Shield games one hour a day can be made up due to loss of play through bad weather. In Tests only  30 mins can be made up daily. We have long daylight  hours down here, so  the 60 mins extra per day would have been good.

Today's going to be washed out I think. Bit of a shame for Hobart, you guys finally got a good test match to watch against some quality opposition and the weather wrecks it. 

Even though it was a bad day for Australia, all of us at the cricket were expecting the game to end from torrential rain at any moment. It held off! Only 13 minutes was lost to rain.

8 000 went to watch a game in cool overcast weather.

Hasham Amla is very easy on the eye. 


It has rained all night an doesn't look like stopping. Hobart is the second driest capital in Australia after Adelaide. Hobart Airport is even drier.

We just don't have the ticker to grind out tough runs in overcast conditions. Smith aside. IT's incredible. 

Some of that bowling was absolutely outstanding though. That over where Philander nearly got two wickets in a row was an absolute beauty. Their bowling is in a different class to ours.