Just something a little further to the non-selection of Glenn Maxwell and Chris Tremain in yesterday’s Test squad, mainly because it has wonderful to hear people like Ricky Ponting and Allan Border also coming out and publicly wondering just what the selectors are doing in this situation.
There are mixed opinions on Maxwell’s ability and whether or not he deserves to be selected. My opinion tends to change from week to week depending on what he has done, but he has always shown that he does have some ability with bat and ball and in the field, and I wonder whether that has been utilised properly at any time. Whether he deserves preferential treatment in this isn’t what is being discussed. What he does deserve is a level playing field, and I’m not sure he has been getting that.
When he came back from Bangladesh last year, having played in the final two Tests against India and both Tests against Bangladesh, he was dropped from the First Test against England in Brisbane in favour of Shaun Marsh. I ranted in another blog post at the time that it seemed a bit harsh, and that the selection criteria that was being used to select the Test team seemed to be weighed against different players in different ways. I felt the same when Peter Handscomb was then summarily dumped after the Second Test to allow the younger Marsh to be reinstated. Both Maxwell and Handscomb seemed to get little favour despite their efforts on the subcontinent, and although both Marsh brothers went on to score two centuries apiece in the Ashes series it didn’t feel as though that was reason enough for how they had been shoehorned back into the team
Last season Maxwell was told to go away and score more runs to force his way back. Well, as that Test match unfolded he slaughtered the New South Wales team for 278 at North Sydney Oval. Pretty emphatic. While it was his only first-class century for the summer, he also made a handy 91 in a tough match at the MCG to further showcase his virtue. He was ignored for the South African tour, but was flown across with both Joe Burns and Matt Renshaw after the ball tampering debacle left three players being flown home in disgrace. He missed out on a place in the 4th Test, but had surely better claims to come.
With the ‘New Australia’ beginning under Langer and Paine, Maxwell was hoping to show what he could do on the A tour to India in the hope of forcing his way into the squad for the upcoming Pakistan tour. He was not chosen for A tour though, which he took as a positive that he had nothing to prove and would instead be an automatic selection. On Tuesday that proved not to be the case.
What players and armchair critics alike want to see is accountability, and clear reasons why players have or have not been selected. By using lines like ‘we want to see more runs’ as the reason one player is not selected, and yet have others in the squad whose raw figures are less impressive than those of the player left out, leaves one to opine that there is more to the non-selection that what is being said.
There is an obvious necessity to rebuild the image of Australian cricket, and no doubt that will mean looking past a player if they do not believe he is a ‘team’ player, or is a person who doesn’t tow the line in the way the current leadership group believes they should. It is not unknown in the general public that Maxwell has rubbed some people the wrong way in the way he does some things, and that some of these (formerly) influential people had marked his card against him playing again.
In last season’s Sheffield Shield season, Joe Burns scored 725 runs at 55.76 with two centuries, Travis Head 738 runs at 46.12 with two centuries, and Glenn Maxwell 707 runs at 50.50 with 1 double century. Compared to the figures of Marnus Labuschagne with 795 runs at 39.75 and two centuries, and Aaron Finch with 494 runs at 35.28 with one century, and you seem to have an anomaly stacking up. Of course, selection isn’t just about numbers, but when the coach and Chairman of Selectors use this as their argument, it becomes an argument that has to be investigated.
If he is seen as someone who has issues around the team, then he needs to be told this so that it can be rectified. If indeed it is just that they want more runs from him, then the selectors need to be able to account for that in all of their selections and non-selections, not just on certain individuals.
The bowling selections offer just as much confusion, especially in the case where one obvious outstanding candidate for selection has been bypassed by three others with less credentials in almost every category. Chris Tremain is an extremely unfortunate young man given his form over a long period of time, and in conditions that the team is expected to encounter in the UAE.
I sat with my son Josh at the SCG almost two years ago for the fourth day of the Shield match between NSW and Victoria, and as Jon Holland tried to dismiss the strong Blues batting Chris Tremain was at the other end frightening them out. On an up and down crumbling track Tremain’s pace and bounce was exactly what you wanted to see from your fast bowler in those conditions.
His figures speak for themselves. Last season he took 51 wickets at 21.07. The previous season he took 42 wickets at 18.97. On the recent A tour in India in the two games he took 6 wickets at 22.00. If the selectors had the hide to tell him he wasn’t selected because they wanted to see him do more in first class cricket, Tremain had every right to ping a cricket ball right at them. With two of the ‘big three’ not going on this tour, surely, he was the perfect player to fill one of those positions. Instead, the experienced Peter Siddle is touring, while uncapped and for the most part untested Michael Neser and Brendan Doggett get themselves a trip. Last season in the Shield Neser took 39 wickets at 21.84, and Doggett 28 wickets at 27.71. Both good, but not as good as Tremain.
It’s quite possible that in the long run, missing out bowling on the dead tracks of the UAE may be the best career move Tremain will meet. Certainly, he’d be much more likely to enjoy a shot at the Gabba or perhaps the new stadium in Perth. However, that doesn’t make up for the fact that he deserved to be chosen for this tour, and that is what is most troubling.
I mentioned this a year ago. If teams are no longer going to be chosen on current form, but instead are chosen on gut feel or because certain people have a liking for certain players, the the whole system is going to come crashing down.
It really is a new era in Australian cricket, and while the result of the Tests against Pakistan will be the real acid test for how the team is traveling, any failure with bat or ball will be monitored and will have the follow up line…”If only they had chosen Maxwell and Tremain”.
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