Australian Cricket Team Discussions

Top Contributors
Re: Australian Cricket Team Discussions

Sober Symonds;340761 said:
Apart from a hint of NSW bias, I also detect a bit of a blind reliance on stats. We could argue the case for Love, Hodge & others on the same principal, but they're not from Sydney, are they?
Click to expand...

I'm not quite sure where you're going with this- but stats don't lie! ;)

Sober Symonds;340761 said:
Clarke's recent form, as "D.O.Pain" spells out, is a concern. Now if you reckon he was underprepared, carrying an injury or whatever, then perhaps we should get back to McGain and making some excuses for his one performance.
Click to expand...

There is no excuse for McGain- he's just not good enough! Clarke's form was poor, but he still contributed and his innings and partnership in the first test with Ponting when we were teetering on the brink was the sole reason we did so well in that series.

If he or Ponting had thrown their wicket away, then the Saffies would've had the upper hand and probably have gone on to win the series! ;)

Sober Symonds;340761 said:
Boon, Martyn and Waugh were unquestionably great contributors to the Australian Test team. Marsh's scores probably explain a bit about him, but these guys played when we didn't necessarily rule the world and there were some decent attacks going round. The likes of Clarke & Hussey came in when no-one could bowl us out, so that's a far easier platform on which to begin.
Click to expand...

It may be the case- but its not their fault that they played in this era. The difference is Clarke was leading runscorer in both series prior to this, including up against a fired up South African attack which was being talked up as much as the Windies were back in the day.

Hussey has been poor for about four series in a row now, and up against good bowlers needs to amend his technique. However, stats don't lie, and I do pick him to improve and his class will prevail.

Sober Symonds;340761 said:
Clarke has been a let-down, and others can see it. His figures would be boosted by batting low, therefore having some n.o's, though I will concede he has played some decent innings at times. The consistency or reliability isn't there. He was put into the middle order to begin with, and nurtured as our next leader, yet in the years that have since passed he has failed to convince us still that he is ready for elevation to 3 or 4, or to lead the national team.
Click to expand...

Who's to say that he has to move to no. 3 or 4? I've never been Clarke's biggest fan, and think at times he can be a ********, but there's no rule that says you can't captain the team from 5 or 6! ;)

Sober Symonds;340761 said:
As for Lee, he seems to have some tremendous series, and some lamentable ones. Perhaps he should be looked at in terms of where the team is going to be playing and be smart about who we take where. He is easy fodder in England, whereas some of our swing bowlers would relish the conditions. It's time the selectors recognised this.
Click to expand...

I agree with this as I posted above- glad we can agree on something! :)
 
Re: Australian Cricket Team Discussions

ive allways assumed he"d go to no3 at some stage, id like to see him at 3/4 for a spell, ponting cant stay at 3 forever (or can he) prides the only thing that"ll keep him there, and clarke seems like the logical person to replace him, its time the pup did some hard yards to see what he"s got. he"s a senior batsmen now and no5 is normally kept for the junior batsman or ageing batsman with 6 going to the allrounders now days. (or it should be).
 
Re: Australian Cricket Team Discussions

I know what you mean- but I'm sure Steve Waugh didn't move much higher than 5 when batting as captain- and the way we are promoting batsmen at the moment (Hughes obviously excluded), they are usually so experienced and in their late 20's-early 30's that throwing them into 3 or 4 wouldn't or shouldn't be too much of an ask! :)
 
Re: Australian Cricket Team Discussions

distributer of pain;340783 said:
average of 43 and strike rate of 40, shit your right, hed be the first picked in my team. as i said, dont reply to my posts with your gibberish comments, allthough i do applaud big cricket letting mentally handicaped people like yourself post in this forum, it can be quite funny.
Click to expand...

So illiteracy aside, you can't answer any of my points?
 
Re: McGain is hopeless?

Kram81;340777 said:
This is just laughable, I'd say you have never even watched him play a game. Boon was a superb batsman that often carried
Australia and in his prime would easily be in the Australian side today. Do you think he may have averaged a bit less because of the tougher wickets, no boundary ropes and West Indians like Curtley Ambrose were running around? Not to mention being a freakish fielder at short leg. He made 122 and 49 in the tied Test in Madras under quite possibly the must horrendous conditions ever experienced by cricketers.

Also in ODIs he performed, was the leader at the 87 World Cup averaging 55 and top scored with 75 in the final that we of course won.
Click to expand...
as i said earlier, alan border averaged well over 50 in his prime, finished with an average of 50+, same as steve waugh, they faced the same bowling attacks as boon. and we are talking test cricket here, so ODI form doesnt matter. look he was a good batsman, no doubt, but he wouldnt get close to selection with todays criteria.
 
Re: McGain is hopeless?

distributer of pain;340811 said:
as i said earlier, alan border averaged well over 50 in his prime, finished with an average of 50+, same as steve waugh, they faced the same bowling attacks as boon. and we are talking test cricket here, so ODI form doesnt matter. look he was a good batsman, no doubt, but he wouldnt get close to selection with todays criteria.
Click to expand...
Hey- stop stealing bits from my blog! :p
 
Re: Australian Cricket Team Discussions

el-capitano;340802 said:
I know what you mean- but I'm sure Steve Waugh didn't move much higher than 5 when batting as captain- and the way we are promoting batsmen at the moment (Hughes obviously excluded), they are usually so experienced and in their late 20's-early 30's that throwing them into 3 or 4 wouldn't or shouldn't be too much of an ask! :)
Click to expand...
i suppose what im saying is that i would like to see him demand no3, hes supposed to be our next leader and id like to see some leadership or ambition for the job, he should aspire to be our next no3. ive never heard him mention it ?
 
Re: McGain is hopeless?

distributer of pain;340811 said:
as i said earlier, alan border averaged well over 50 in his prime, finished with an average of 50+, same as steve waugh, they faced the same bowling attacks as boon. and we are talking test cricket here, so ODI form doesnt matter. look he was a good batsman, no doubt, but he wouldnt get close to selection with todays criteria.
Click to expand...

Firstly Border, Waugh never opened or went first drop and and very few players have averaged 50+, in fact only 34 have achieved this. You are saying that anyone that was in the 40s wouldn't get a game today. By your logic you would select a dud like Brad Hodge over Boon, Martyn and Mark Waugh because he averages 55.
 
Re: Australian Cricket Team Discussions

look, your just making a tool of yourself now, give it up, your right, im wrong, happy ? heres my new batting line up, top 4, you"ll love this.
boon
marsh
wood
richie
 
Re: McGain is hopeless?

AB was a freak. Waugh was also an alltime great, not to mention the fact that he also faced some depleted attacks in the latter part of his career.

Boon averaged quite high during some of the darkest days of Australian cricket. This thread is insanity.
 
Re: Who is hopeless?

Kram81;340829 said:
Firstly Border, Waugh never opened or went first drop and and very few players have averaged 50+, in fact only 34 have achieved this. You are saying that anyone that was in the 40s wouldn't get a game today. By your logic you would select a dud like Brad Hodge over Boon, Martyn and Mark Waugh because he averages 55.
Click to expand...

There are numerous reasons why batting averages are higher today than they were 15 years ago. That's why it's very difficult to argue that one player from then wouldn't get a game now. You can only compare them to contemporarys, not different eras. Boon was probably our 2nd best bat for a while, yet others now who average clearly more can't get a game.

Having said that, what classifies Hodge as a dud? We've heard El-Capitano and others argue that stats don't lie, so I'd like to hear from someone else on this point.

My original argument was that the likes of Ponting, Clarke and Katich have jsut taken their foot off the pedal, and Hussey is just a sad shade of his former self. Still, their stats stack up well. We have lost as many Tests as we have won over the past 9 months or so. Some of the performances should be looked at a little harder than sitting back and saying they performed well previously.
 
Re: Who is hopeless?

Sober Symonds;340857 said:
There are numerous reasons why batting averages are higher today than they were 15 years ago. That's why it's very difficult to argue that one player from then wouldn't get a game now. You can only compare them to contemporarys, not different eras. Boon was probably our 2nd best bat for a while, yet others now who average clearly more can't get a game.

Having said that, what classifies Hodge as a dud? We've heard El-Capitano and others argue that stats don't lie, so I'd like to hear from someone else on this point.

My original argument was that the likes of Ponting, Clarke and Katich have jsut taken their foot off the pedal, and Hussey is just a sad shade of his former self. Still, their stats stack up well. We have lost as many Tests as we have won over the past 9 months or so. Some of the performances should be looked at a little harder than sitting back and saying they performed well previously.
Click to expand...
Stats don't lie- Hodges has only played 6 test matches- most standards call up at least 20 innings before they qualify- so yeah- Hodge doesn't make it! ;)
 
Re: McGain is hopeless?

Caesar;340846 said:
AB was a freak. Waugh was also an alltime great, not to mention the fact that he also faced some depleted attacks in the latter part of his career.

Boon averaged quite high during some of the darkest days of Australian cricket. This thread is insanity.
Click to expand...
But yeah- I'm not sure where this thread is going but its funny to read! :D
 
Re: Australian Cricket Team Discussions

mark taylor had pretty much the average as boon, played against the same attacks, opened the batting and was captain, his strike rate was a few points better, would mark taylor stroll back into our test team now ?, i hope not, theres a reason we are the best, and one of those reasons is that we dont condone shitty averages and shitty strike rates anymore, remember these players havnt been out of the game for that long really. gordon grenidge and desmond haynes averaged low 40s as openers, but that was against much better attacks than boon or taylor faced, and they had crappy bats, no helmuts and worse pitches as well, it was also a golden era of test cricket, this is a dry argument, we simply will never know no matter how much we debate it.
 
Re: Australian Cricket Team Discussions

Well, I may as well post something to make this thread worthwhile.

adriana-lima.jpg
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top