Just heard the Hopes has been selected to replace Watson for the Aussies tour of India.
The only question now is:
Which one of the chairman of selectors reads my blog?
I’m guessing Merv does, maybe he heard I live down the road from the Merv Huges oval.
I’ve been keeping an eye over the Pakistan A vs. Australia A series. I like the A series. I like to know who stands up, who to watch out for, and how cricketers go on tours.
This tour Doug Bollinger has appeared to bowl well. I find that interesting as I thought he was a spastic and was basically picked because he was from New South Wales. James Hopes had a pretty good series as well (as I mentioned in my brilliantly written and researched article about all rounders, I really am quite talented).
Most importantly for Australian cricket Phil Jacques was on fire. He made 2 hundreds and an 80. It will be interesting to see if he is picked as the Aussie opener. The money seems to be on Brad Hodge, but I really don’t think he will make a good opener. Just because turning Langer into an opener worked doesn’t mean it will for Hodge.
My choice would be for Hussey or Jacques. Both are openers by trade. If you throw in Chris Rogers from Western Australia there is not a shortage of openers, so why make one out of Hodge.
It seems to be the sort of thing a government or global company would do. You have three options that all look like they could easily handle the job. One of them is already performing at the top level and has done the job for years. The other two have scored over 10000 runs doing that very job, so lets get a guy who has never done it before.
Maybe they should pay a consultant to help Hodge learn how to open. Langer perhaps, he has to feed his 83 kids after all..
David Hussey, brother of the Probot king Michael Hussey, also made 2 centuries. David is much different to Michael. He is more of a free flowing attacking batsman. He is less concerned with how he looks and more concerned with hitting the ball hard. Sort of a Dean Jones mixed with Allan Border if that’s possible or if it makes any sense at all. I was going to say like Jamie Siddons, but since he never played a test and most people never saw him play that won’t help anyone.
I’m not sure what I can legally say on a blog, but I feel its time to test the boundaries.
I think the Australia selectors need to put the screen around Shane Watson, go get the shotgun and put the boy out of his misery.
This has nothing to do with talent, or the fact he comes from Queensland. This is all about Australian cricket. There is no doubt that without the great workhorses of McGrath, Warne and Gillespie the Australian team needs an all rounder.
Andrew Symonds is a band-aid, I love the bloke, (he won us a world cup) but his bowling is no where near the standard of test cricket, and his batting is yet to live up to his amazing record in one day cricket. He simply is not a test match all rounder, he may still become a test match batsmen, but as a fifth bowler he is on the wrong side of Steve Waugh.
So this leaves us with two options. Keep playing Shane Watson, even though its clear his body is built out of Bruce Reid plywood, or bite the bullet and try the options in state cricket.
James Hopes is something. In the words of Bert Newton, I like the boy. I can already see what his problem is going to be, he’s a little too Ian Harvey. He bowls good enough to be a more than handy 5th bowler, and he bats well enough to be a really handy number 7 or a shit hot number 8. But Australia wants a number six or a fourth bowler, this isn’t South Africa after all.
His first class averages (bat 32, ball 36) aren’t really all that exciting, but he hasn’t gone to England to prop up his average like every other Australian hopeful has. He has earnt his averages in the toughest domestic competition in the world. And he has played in the best team in that comp, behind all rounders like Shane Watson and Andy Bichel.
I’m not saying playing him isn’t a risk, but he is probably 6 years younger than Symonds (I couldn’t be bothered looking it up) and is worth a shot. Hopes is in Pakistan at the moment, playing for Australia A, he is taking wickets and making hundreds (one hundred actually).
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Also in state cricket is Cameron White, the prodigal son. He will either be Australia’s next captain, or a big hitting batsman who never quite worked out how to get batsmen out. I am sure that if he lived in any other country in the world he would be playing test cricket already, and probably captaining half of them (and doing a better job).
To get into the Australian team you need to excel in one discipline, and Cameron White’s batting has him in the queue, but not at the front of it, His bowling is the real worry, when he first came onto the scene he was difficult to get away, bowled a great line and always chipped in with good wickets. Now his bowling seems to be stumbling down the wrong dark alley after midnight.
The last option is a left of field choice, but that’s why I like it. Throw in this Luke Butterworth chap from Tassie. Rick (Ricky) likes him (more than I can say about his relationship with White), he won a Sheffield pura cup shield on his own. He has the added bonus of actually being young.
He has only played 5 first class matches, but if I think back guys like Warne and McGrath were picked from obscurity and they seemed to turn out ok. If you don’t count the drugs, extra marital sex, and offcourse McGrath’s shit house hair cut.
Enough of these 32 year old proboters who have been bullying flaccid English attacks in their off season for years. Lets put a 23 year old with obvious talent who wins big games on his own, into the mother fucking side. Also it would be nice to have a Tasmanian in the Australian side again. Lets not pretend Rick (Ricky) is still a Tasmanian.
