Australian Cricket Thread

[andy]

Aaron hardies had another shocker of a night with both bat and ball, I really don't understand the hype around him....never seen him score runs or take wickets or not get round the park..... someone who's seen a lot of domestic cricket in Australia might be able to tell me otherwise but I really just don't get the hype around him

[sussexpob]

Aaron hardies had another shocker of a night with both bat and ball, I really don't understand the hype around him....never seen him score runs or take wickets or not get round the park..... someone who's seen a lot of domestic cricket in Australia might be able to tell me otherwise but I really just don't get the hype around him

Teams play such little 50 over cricket now, most teams are picking their 50 over side based on other formats. He's not got a great 50 over record, so struggling in the format isn't exactly a surprise.....

I wouldn't judge him on that. His FC all-round record is great.

[Arthur Crabtree]

These cames have been swinging either way but by small margins. But that's an absolute trouncing for SA.

Odd that Labuschagne didn't bat.

[GarlicJam]

only two wickets fell - the first one after 250 runs had been scored.

[Arthur Crabtree]

I thought he is a top 4 bat. Maybe that's just Tests.

[GarlicJam]

Define "top".

(he was dropped from the last test side - or two - wasn't he?)

The selectors are nothing if not flexible - some might say indecisive - with the score at 0/250, someone made the decision that Green is next one in. 2 balls later, Green was in. Probably didn't want Marnus slowing things down.

[The Professor]

Khawaja to retire

Despite my continued efforts to.....actually quite like him.

Has his head screwed on and has a moral compass

[Durhamfootman]

settling some scores on his way out

[Arthur Crabtree]

Not seen any updates on Martyn.

[Arthur Crabtree]

settling some scores on his way out

Might be worthwhile for the media to listen to his concerns.

[Durhamfootman]

that might be commie talk, mister

[Arthur Crabtree]

It would seem so. Kemi Badenoch has insisted I apologise.

[sussexpob]

Might be worthwhile for the media to listen to his concerns.

I dont think you get to forget everything that you have ever done in your career at the end, and then cry you've been singled out unfairly. After he was initially taken apart in test cricket, his form at state level plummeted, and he openly talked of falling out of love with the game and moving on. He rebuilt his career in Queensland after departing NSW, but at the first opportunity to reprove himself in the national team he got himself booted out the squad (with others, he wasn't singled out because of race) for not completing his mandated preparation work that the captain and coach had asked of all players strictly. If people were out to get him, then being suspended for discipline with a test average of 25 would have been the end for him.

In his presser, he complained about being singled out for golf when he team mates also played, but this is nothing but bad faith. The press were not criticising him for one isolated incident before Perth, he openly said some time ago (I reckon 18-24 months ago maybe) that as he headed into his late 30s he would prolong his career by resting more and having more downtime, and that he couldn't keep working as he used to at his age - his form plummeted, a series of niggly injuries followed - the point was not to criticise him playing golf before that test, it was to highlight that his continual choice of playing golf over training might be the reason he keeps losing fitness. He manufactured a point to portray something that wasn't really being suggested - he was singled out because he was the only 38-39 year old who came out and said he'd no longer be training as hard. No one else did that. No one else was criticised.

The best example though is the Grand Prix gate. I guess at the end of the day you can believe who you want, but why on Earth would a coach, backed by his junior coach (a respected ex-player with 150 international caps), and his state director (Australia's 8th most capped test player) all come out to say he faked injury and buggered off to watch a GP rather than play, if it wasn't true? And the deal breaker was the fact that after it became a huge new story and Khawaja came back, not a single person he cited came out and said his side of the story was true. George Bailey could have ended the story with a 1 minute phone call, but he and others Khawaja rallied for his defence rested silent. It all ended with him then changing the narrative into some lame, soap opera rubbish about him being so dedicated to Queensland, he left his wife and kids at home to play Tasmania during a period of inclement weather...... it felt a bit surreal by the end.

Probably worth noting as well that Khawaja has bragged in the past that he was responsible for changing the fines/strictness of lost over rates after pulling strings with friends at the ICC. Amusingly, he talked about it like he was doing a great service to the players to stop them losing their match fees, and seemed oblivious to the fact what he was really celebrating was a system of robbing the paying public for the entertainment they paid for....

He's a trained pilot, so I have to conclude he's more entitled t*sser over stupid.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Sounds a lot like the complaints we used to hear from the England players born overseas, back in the 80s-90s. Reasons were ascribed to ethnicity which almost certainly couldn't be justified. We heard it from Lord Ted and the Daily Telegraph in those days.

I notice how many of the Aussie players in this series were born overseas and wonder if the Aussie press might be going through the same resistance to change that England did back then. Or with KP later on. The media/management resented them and used their background against them.

How much simpler it is to say 'give me a Queenslander' when things are going wrong.

Maybe he hasn't a case, but the media should look at it.

[sussexpob]

I don't want to say that colour or religious differences do not create unique, harder challenges for immigrants, but having been an immigrant in 4 different countries I feel reasonably qualified to say that how much this factors against people is overblown. Any society or social culture that creates barriers for people of colour will also create barriers for non-natives in a reasonably equal proportion, because the people who support or uphold these social structures also tend to be the type who don't make much difference between Asian Muslim and Afrikaans speaking white South Africans - both are foreign, both are treated with disdain or considered undesirable. The Kolpak era of English cricket and the hostility towards white South Africans who more than held their own in terms of quality, and more than contributed to English cricket's international success, is a perfect example. It mattered to none of the racist, xenophobic people in British society that they were white. They just weren't English. They were scapegoated and removed for this reason.

It therefore feels significant in the context of Australian cricket culture that players, irrespective of race or colour, who are foreign born being picked on merit tends to show an absence of other less desirable factors. And its not only foreign born players - Brendan Doggett, Scott Boland and Jake Weatherald are all from indigenous heritage, considering only 5 First Nation players have represented Australia in its test history, having 60% of those playing in the same match this series certainly indicates a positive change, does it not?

And race or birth is not the only factor in this discussion. Mental health for instance is another taboo that would have in the past singled out players - just look how Trescothick's career ended. Just look how Trott was mocked only 12 years ago when he had a breakdown, which only a short time later would be unfathomable in the current day.... Travis Head, Glenn Maxwell, Jake Weatherald (who was housebound with agoraphobia twice in his career and had to step away from the game), Will Pucovski ... all of these have openly had battles with mental health issues, and all have been supported and picked afterwards. If there was a culture to single out differences, would players like this not have been shelved?

If this was the distant past, then how many of these players would be in the team? Maybe the non-white players would never had the opportunities to play. Maybe the mental health struggles would have been deemed weak and sent packing. Maybe the Saffer lads never get an opportunity. Maybe Cameron Green never gets picked up as a young player due to his health issues. Maybe Steve Smith goes to England as a late teen and when he returns get's told to p*ss off for being a pom when he tries to find a club side.

The fact is, none of these things are true because its not 1965 anymore. The composition of the team speaks for itself. The team are picking players of different heritage, are supportive of players unique differences and give them support.... Just because one bitter person who can't take just criticism of some of his past attitude says the game is racist, I don't know why we should listen.

And as I said, in Khawaja's case the only support he could give for his opinion was 3 examples that fell short of confirming his opinions.