Andrew McDonald comes in, and logic takes a holiday
If you want a Victorian perspective on what this means, go here.
For Ausralia it means the panic button has been pressed.
It’s not that Andrew McDonald isn’t a good cricketer, he is.
Just that his selection has a mad sense of panic all over it, the selectors no longer believe 4 bowlers are enough for Australia.
They probably don’t believe 5 is enough, but that is as far as they are going to stretch it.
Ashley Noffke must be confused, again, first he missed out to Siddle in India, Geeves in Darwin and now to McDonald in Sydney.
It’s probably payback for all the damage he has caused to people down south over the years.
I would have picked him, because he is a bowling all rounder, and he is going to be more useful than McDonald where Australia really need him.
But they haven’t, which means they don’t think the batting is any better.
McDonald is a handy batsman, not as good as Haddin though, in general he gets starts and then gives them away.
In 44 first class matches he has only 2 hundreds, which sounds shithouse, but throw in a playful 15 half centuries.
It shows he can bat, but he has trouble committing to the relationship.
His bowling is slightly better than Roy’s medium pace.
His first class bowling record is pretty good, an average of 30, and he does pick up wickets fairly easily, but he is just a medium pacer who swings it, and his record is improved by playing at the swing friendly MCG with a good bowling attack around him.
The big problem with his selection is it breaks the unofficial Australian rule. McDonald is not good enough to play as a batsmen or a bowler.
He is what I like to call a South African all rounder.
South Africa played heaps of them in the 90’s.
Guys who could bat a bit, bowl a bit, but had no place in test cricket.
McDonald probably has the talent to make it as a batsmen, but 44 matches for 2 hundreds is not a test batsmen, it’s not even close.
Noffke is a proper bowler, he could easily play as a bowler only, even without his batting, but he has been overlooked by someone with a lot of ability, but no real performances on the board.
Although i still say that there is a chance that the wrong player could have been selected.
cricketwithballs
There’s some discussion by some Aussie luminaries over at the bbc here: http://tinyurl.com/bbcstuff- mildly interesting except for one bit which is very very interesting: Greg Matthews (an ALL ROUNDER Jrod!) who says “Victoria’s Dirk Nannes is an animal, he’s ugly, you wouldn’t want to face him.” I think it’s a compliment
…oh and I meant to mention this too although it has nothing to do with Aus but lots to do with religion – from Cricket voice an Indian fan forum from an interview with Sehwag:”What is it between you and Gautam Gambhir that is ticking? You are becoming the most formidable opening pair in world cricket today.We enjoy each other’s company. We compliment each other. We try to be relaxed. Some times we even sing songs between the mid-pitch chats. We both admire each other’s batting. Our understanding is very good and we enjoy our partnership.”I just love the thought of them singing – Sewagology hymns do you think?
Australia’s selectors: A victorian, three tasmanians (including the goblin) and a south australian – no real surprises then that vics and taswegians are suddenly getting picked.
Australia’s selectors: A victorian, three tasmanians (including the goblin) and a south australian – no real surprises then that vics and taswegians are suddenly getting picked.
Australia’s selectors: A victorian, three tasmanians (including the goblin) and a south australian – no real surprises then that vics and taswegians are suddenly getting picked.
who selects the selectors?names out of a hat?CA christmas orgies?ponting gives them a reach around?they hold a seance with bradman’s ghost?those love calculators you get on mobiles?pin the tail on the donkey?spin the bottle?c’mon. help me out
it’s the people who select the people that select the people that select the selectors, these are the ones that need to be dumped, and pronto
These ozzy selectocrat moves are straight out of the brown pants school of management. And not a very successful school may I add.Ceci, I believe the tune goes something like this. I don’t remember the exact lyrics, so feel free to fill in. Here goesI see a ball wide of off stump tum-te-tum-te-tumAnd off it goes over backward point-te-tum-te-tumI see my score on 294 tum-te-tum-te-tumI dispatch it over long-on te-tum-te-tumI see my team shit their pants tum-te-tum-te-tumI get my double ton-te-tum-te-tum
Dont really care if he is not test standard and has bright orange hair. Its time Victorians got into the team more than one at a time. Australia’s problem at the moment seems to be getting the opposition out, so they have gone for the best all-rounder they have. They have weakened the batting but upgraded the bowling.