Trent and Josh are ahead of him. Oh the shame.
If Mitch's head is in tune with his new technique I am predicting he will wizz up that ladder over the next 12 months.

Mitch Marsh may end up as one of the most disliked Aussie cricketers by Aussie fans of all time...

There are some very unhappy Aussie fans to his selection, despite the 2 Ashes hundreds last year. 

People seem to be able to be keenly interested in his test stats as though their Bradman's. And for very different reasons.

Puzzling?

I'm surprised that Women's BBL now gets more coverage on ABC radio than men's Sheffield Shield!

Really. Before online live streaming I listened to a lot of Shield cricket on Aunty.

There is little Shield match coverage on the ABC radio now. On the weekend the WBBL was the main event.

Watching one of the Fox programs on former players, Andrew Symonds felt lack of support from Cricket Aus was responsible for him losing interest in the sport.

He was called a 'monkey' by Harbajan Singh - twice.

Harbajan apologised to him eventually  and broke down in tears - being ashamed of his actions. Symonds appreciated the  apology, but was furious CA wouldn't make an issue about racial vilification. This was because the Indian  cricket authority was seen as too powerful and wouldn't censure Singh's actions.

I would listen to Symonds, and CA were very "political" by not upsetting the Indians, but at the time Australia were winners, so water off the ducks back when you're winning, but that doesn't justify CA lack of support for Symonds.

That's the real crux of the matter, when you're winners the banter and actions is deemed jovial and in all honesty is quite humourous. But when you're losers it becomes more personal.

When Ricky Pointing threw an agro fit in the Ashes about Englands use of replacements to give bowlers a rest, and IMO rightly so, we were losing.

With the "speak English" incident it was just one idiot's verbal assault. With "get ready for a broken arm" Australia had had just been humiliated by India and England losing 4-0, 3-0, resulting in Michael Clarke losing his role as National Selector, thus his power to choose the team, so a lot of frustration there as a losing captain, his ego couldn't take it.

With the latest SA tour, we were losing and SA were going to retain trophy. I think SA were 3/150 with a big lead over 200 and the bowlers were being spanked by Markham so out came the sandpaper. Losing makes us frustrated and we lose rational thought, that is if they have a brain cell in the first place. If the bowlers were doing well there would not have been any thought of sandpaper.

Winners are grinners so Symonds just had to deal with it. The cowardly thing by CA is their lack of action over the past years against obvious "losers" which resulted in the current problems we now see in Australian cricket. The support CA threw behind obvious problematic players resulted in their actions being sanctioned by the hierarchy and it just got worse.

You make some good points, Mike.

Many of the issues have occurred when Australia are losing.

I would've thought brother Shaun fits the bill.

West Aussies are very parochial. But I'd take a guess that outside WA, S Marsh, is  a very unpopular cricketer with fans, until he finds more consistency. Particularly given  the fact Maxwell has as good a FC average, and, is a decent spin bowler and such a good fielder, for comparison purposes .

One of the good things about cricket is that  we can constantly refer to facts ( batting and bowling averages) to verify performances of players.

Are you a Victorian KW? Until Maxie can display red ball patience he remains in limbo. Do the maths on his games played to average ratio.. it s not around @40.. that is inflated due to his having 10 of his innings not outs. He has passed 50 a mere 28 times from 104 innings.. that is moderate at best.. his conversion rate is also poor. Seven tons.. you would expect a player the type you and others seem to think he is would have at least 20 tons from that many visits to the crease. Why do you think that at 30 years of age he has only played 7 tests matches?

Name the cricketer that uttered these immortal words? Clue he played in the 80s-90s.

Some guys chew gum. Some chew their nails. Some abuse their team-mates. I played air guitar. I sang to the crowd. I sang to myself and I danced. I said things to the good sorts in the crowd. Can someone please tell me what's wrong with that? People say Mark Waugh was a great player. I think I averaged 41, the same as him, and he played in a team that rarely lost. I played in a side that rarely won. There's one reason why I didn't play more and the brothers [translation: his Australian team-mates] know the reasons why I wasn't picked, and it wasn't because my bowling average was 48. I can't say why; I'm going to write it myself.

I'm going with Mo Mathews...

Yep. I moved it to other thread as this thread does not get the traffic it deserves. 

In some cases, players have played LOC for national teams that has taken them away from FC cricket. I'm surprised Maxwell is 30. For an average of 41, Maxwell must have had a lot of decent starts.

LOC national team cricket has occurred with James Faulkner. He has been taken away from a fair bit of FC cricket that he has needed.

The antithesis of Maxwell has been Shaun Marsh. He has a  large number of scores below 10, and a reasonable number over 50 in Test cricket - all or nothing.

DC what is the latest on James Faulkner?  Seems to have gone off the radar in all formats. Always rated him.

Struggling with a knee injury.

I think his bowling career might be over.

 Local experts ( ex Shield players and ex first grade cricketers)  think he has underachieved in FC batting and FC cricket in general. He has been a favourite Tassie son.

JF had so much promise. One Test match 6 w @16 + 23 r...and he was dropped.  He was only a kid.. 22. What a kick in the guts that must have been. Bloody selectors.

Have posted in mod thread as you advised DC.

Australian cricket's preeminent awards event will be renamed the Australian Cricket Awards from the 2019 event onwards. This joint announcement by CA and the ACA follows several changes to the awards night in past years to reflect the shifting landscape of Australian cricket and, in particular, the increasing recognition of women's cricket and the popularity of the T20 format. comments.

I reckon Allan Border will be feeling a touch peeved over this decision.

Gender equality rearing its head.

CA has named a 14-player Australia Under 19s squad for a four-match tour of Sri Lanka in January.. The squad, named following the 2018-19 CA Under 19 National Championships in Adelaide, will arrive in Colombo on 30 December to play three one-day matches and one three-day match against Sri Lanka Under 19s.

Included in the squad are the quartet of Will Sutherland,  Zac Evans, Jarrod Freeman and Bazter Holt  who all represented Australia at the Under 19 World Cup in New Zealand earlier this year and will enter the tour fresh from strong performances at the recently completed U19 National Championships in Adelaide. 

Holt scored an impressive 333 runs @55 during the Championships, Sutherland made 299 runs at @43, while Evans claimed 13 wickets @16.Also included in the squad is emerging batsman Oliver Davies.  

Jake Williams (TAS) 348 @58, Connor Smith (WA) 320 @53, Blake Nikitaris (ACT) 322 @42 can all count themselves unlucky.

The Australian 2019 U19 Tour of Sri Lanka. Three ODIs at P Sara Oval, Colombo plus three-day fixture at the SSC Ground in Colombo from January 1- 12. 
Australia Under 19 Squad: Iain Carlisle NSW) Oliver Davies (NSW) Zak Evans (VIC) Sam Fanning (NSW) Jarrod Freeman (TAS) Lachlan Hearne (NSW) Baxter Holt (NSW) Corey Hunter (QLD) Josh Kann (QLD) Liam Marshall (NSW)  Keegan Oates (TAS) Tanveer Sangha (NSW)  Will Sutherland  (VIC) Matthew Willans - (QLD) Coach: Ryan Harris. Assistant Coach: Wade Townsend

Baggers you really do answer your own questions ocassionally.
Two of the three you mentioned are extremely unlucky to miss out.... Blake Nikitaris (ACT) 322 @42 doesn't deserve selection if the other two aren't selected
But they're not the only ones
If Tanveer Sangha (NSW) is selected for his 10 wickets @ 34.4 why did Josh Pengelley 12 wickets @ 17 miss out? Why did Glenn Winsor (ACT) (see I'm not bias) 12 wickets @ 15 miss out

Top batsmen at the U19 championships IMO were
1 Oates, Keegan TAS 430 runs @72
2 Davies, Oliver NSW 392 runs @ 65
3 Fanning, Samuel NSW 370 @ 74
These are and should be in the side
4 Williams, Jake TAS 348 @ 58 NOT SELECTED
5 Smith, Connor J WA 360 @ 51 NOT SELECTED
6 Holt, Baxter J NSW 333 @ 55
Holt is the keeper no problem

Of the others selected 
Freeman, Jarrod A TAS only scored 194 runs but he is an all rounder taking 10 wickets@28 so OK

Hearne, Lachlan NSW scored only 229 runs came in No 20 on the leading run scorers so you can argue there are 19 ahead of him he doesn't bowl so IMO doesn't deserve selection

Corey Hunter (QLD) 208 runs @26 but smashed NSW all around the park in a Futures League game scoring 141 (against Copeland) then against Tas in a future Leagues game scored 162 (against Meredith, Pyecroft Sandhu and Rose) so that's probably what got him in the side, those performances are at a higher standard 

Liam Marshall (NSW) Who?  I am hoping that is a mis-print and it is actually Liam Scott NSW because I have no idea who Liam Marshall is

Iain Carlisle NSW)  Zak Evans (VIC)   Will Sutherland (VIC) I agree with.

So in general not a bad side but I question Sangha and Hearne

No South Australians even though they made the semi finals? Might be the right call, I don't follow under 19s but does seem strange.

They were a good all round team with no superstars apart from Lloyd Pope who must be playing for SA instead, and Josh Pengelley should have been selected ahead of Sangha IMO

Baggers do you actually follow cricket? U19 GF was ACT/NSW country against Qld when they played a T20 instead of the ODI. Normally the loser of the GF is the "runner up" so that would make it Qld not NSW metro. But I may be wrong they may do things differently south of the border.

Remind me again how many Sheffield shields has NSW won in the last 20 years 4 wasn't it, How many for Qld and the Vic's? 6 each.
How many times has NSW played in the final in the last 20 years 6 wasn't it. 13 times for QLD.
With such a dominance in U19 selection you would think NSW has a massive playing pool to chose from and should be dominating sheffield shield. 

Take note Mike.

New South Wales has won the Kookaburra Shield (U19) 17 times 

• Victoria 15, Western Australia 5, Queensland 5, South Australia 5 and New Zealand twice. Tasmania, Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory are yet to win.
• The Kookaburra Shield has been shared four times

I followed it. Who started the thread? NSW Metro led the tournament until the semi. then drew with SA. They won the Shield in 2014, 2015 not sure of the rest. Not easy to find its history online.

There are always controversial selections Mike. 

Liam Scott. You don concur Oliver Davies should be there. 
The batting lineup should have come from this Top 10. Dont see too many Queenslanders Mike.

	PLAYER	CLUBMAT	INN	NO	100S	50S	0S	4S	6S	MINS	HS	RUNS	AVE.	STR.
1	Oates, Keegan	TAS	8	8	2	1	3	0	47	8	410	124*	430	71.67	90.3
2	Davies, Oliver	NSW	7	6	0	1	1	0	37	24	355	207	392	65.33	143.1
3	Fanning, Samuel T	NSW	8	6	1	1	3	2	41	13	562	102*	370	74.00	113.8
4	Smith, Connor J	WA	7	7	0	1	2	0	35	3	310	107	360	51.43	83.9
5	Williams, Jake	TAS	8	8	2	0	2	0	44	6	462	92*	348	58.00	72.5
6	Holt, Baxter J	NSW	8	6	0	2	0	0	47	7	379	150	333	55.50	102.1
7	Nikitaras, Blake	ACT	8	8	0	0	2	0	33	5	553	65	322	40.25	78.5
8	Capel, Bailey T	SA	8	8	1	2	0	2	30	9	435	138	304	43.43	92.1
9	Sutherland, William	VIC	7	7	0	0	3	0	28	6	464	86	299	42.71	84.2
10	McKenzie, Hamish	WA	7	7	0	0	3	0	21	7	410	82	295	42.14	71.1

 Likewise with the bowlers.

	PLAYER	CLUB	MAT	O	M	R	W	5WI	10WM	BBI	AVE.	STR.	ECN.
1	Pope, Lloyd A	SA	8	66.3	5	273	20	1	0	6/31	13.65	19.95	4.11
2	Carlisle, Iain J	ACT	8	54.5	3	257	15	0	0	3/43	17.13	21.93	4.69
3	Scott, Liam A	NSW	7	44.4	3	181	14	1	0	7/22	12.93	19.14	4.05
4	Evans, Zak K	VIC	7	49.3	3	216	13	1	0	5/46	16.62	22.85	4.36
5	Winsor, Glenn	ACT	8	46.3	1	176	12	0	0	4/25	14.67	23.25	3.78
6	Pengelley, Josh	SA	8	42.2	2	204	12	0	0	3/24	17.00	21.17	4.82
7	Foster, Joel W	NSW	7	54	3	228	12	0	0	3/24	19.00	27.00	4.22
8	Kann, Joshua	QLD	8	44.3	0	228	11	0	0	4/67	20.73	24.27	5.12
9	Walker, Ryan A	QLD	8	54.5	3	279	11	0	0	4/22	25.36	29.91	5.09
10	Botha, Eric G	WA	7	52.1	2	287	11	1	0	5/48	26.09	28.45	5.50

Mike the obvious answer is NSW has always lost its best players to the national side..Yes that applies to all states...except with the Blues it seems to be in clumps. Centenary Test '77..five Blues. '85 Windies tour.. 6 Blues. No fewer than 4/5 Blues picked in most teams between 80/2000s. The Waughs, Taylor, Slater, Clarke, McGrath, Lee, MacGill, even  Dyson, McCosker, Lawson and Stu Clark. In addition, Gilly and AB played a portion of their careers in NSW. That is an impossible hole to fill even with the larger talent pool.. Most of these quality some were champions..  one or two became legends of the game. 

 Could also be something in what I say about all junior elite cricket is white ball . Those that excel at white ball cricket dont necessary excel at red ball. Also some of these U19 kids may choose other sports. I suggest plenty of  junior cricketers struggle with expectation of senior cricket too.