Friday, 31 March 2006
What is Australia's future
For those of us who can still fondly remember Australia getting thrashed by a New Zealand side containing Ewen Chatfield and are hoping for the day when Kyle Mills can inflict the same sort of humiliation, the recent Australian revival has been a little depressing. However one person believes that Australia is on the decline and that this decline is being masked by mediocre opposition and a group of ageing players who, while great, are no longer capable of improvement. That person is none other than the man who took Australia to the top in the first place, former coach Bob Simpson. Bob also has a few things to say about short boundaries and the stupidity of trying to bowl yorkers at the death.
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3 comments:
I'm a bit sceptical of his analysis. For example:
The short boundaries have created a situation where mishits — which were at one time caught on the boundary — sail 20 or 30 yards into the crowd.
I don't remember a time when the boundary was ever set 20 or 30 yards into the crowd.
Ha! Good spotting!
I agree - 20 - 30 yards comment not withstanding :-) - that the recent 2 - 0 scoreline over South Africa in Aus, does not represent the contest though. South Africa were in winning positions in ALL THREE MATCHES, and only a dropped catch in Melbourne and a crazy declaration in Sydney, gave Australia the two victories. It's been a little different in SA though - Australia have outplayed them, but take out Warne, and the results could've been quite different.
The problem is not so much that the current older players can't improve - they're good enough to beat anyone (England included), the real problem is that they need to be able to groom other players to be just as good, and there aren't any in their 20s showing that much promise yet.
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