Australian Team Selection Woes !

Andrew Hilditch, the chairman of selectors of Cricket Australia, has refused to step down from his post after the Ashes debacle. It is an unusual thing for a selector to resign for a team’s failure but the kind of selection decisions that had been made during the last four months definitely merit the chief selector’s resignation.

In October last year, after the disastrous performance in India where Australia lost the Tests 2-0 and the solitary ODI, Merv Hughes was sacked from the selection panel and Greg Chappell appointed on a full time basis. The other three selectors, Hilditch, David Boon and Jamie Cox, had their tenures extended till the end of the 2011 World Cup on a part-time basis.

The Once fearful Australian Cricket Team

The choice of some of the players selected have only opened up more questions to be answered than answering existing ones. In the summer of 2009, when Pakistan and West Indies toured, Nathan Hauritz had all but provided the answer to the eternal question of who will fill Shane Warne’s shoes. A year later, he found himself left out of the Ashes squad after one poor showing in India.

Picking Tasmanian batsman Travis Birt for the T20s against Pakistan, only to forget him forever after that indicates the lack of a long-term focus.

The pace trio of Mitchell Johnson, Shaun Tait and Dirk Nannes were instrumental in Australia reaching the final of the World T20 in the Caribbean. Presently in the T20 series against England, Nannes finds his position usurped by Brett Lee on whom the selection panel seems to have everlasting faith despite is susceptibility to injuries.

One of the two opening slots in ODIs has become a musical chair. While Shane Watson remains a constant, he has seen his partners change from Michael Clarke, Shaun Marsh, Brad Haddin and Tim Paine. An answer needs to be found for Ricky Ponting would not want to be experimenting during an important tournament as the World Cup.

The most important of them all – the spin conundrum- is back to square one as the experimentation continues. What else can you expect with Greg Chappell now a part of the selection panel ? Xavier Doherty never looked like being up for the challenge of playing a tournament as monumental as the Ashes. Hilditch reasons that Doherty’s left-arm spin would be useful to counter the largely right-handed English batting line-up. This suggests that the panel perceived Doherty as an economical bowler than a wicket-taker. In the end, whenever Doherty took over the bowling from the pacers, he found himself faced with left-hander Alastair Cook.

Doherty’s failure was waiting to happen and corrective measures were expected. But instead of bringing back Hauritz, the selection panel looked westward to Perth where rookie Michael Beer was just finding his feet in first-class cricket. Even Shane Warne would agree his inclusion was a huge blunder.

With the all important World Cup coming up, the selection panel has a lot of questions to answer if it is to see its team make it four-in-a-row.