ORDoubleBlues wrote:In answer to the origional question, Brett Dorey.
Admit New South Wales is the best (after all they do have the biggest population) but what about some fringe players over the years that have somehow got a test or one day guernsey
Dave Gilbert
Phil Emery
Murray Bennett
Gavin Robertson
Greg Dyer
Shane Lee
Bob Holland (had one good test but debuting at 38!!!!)
Proof that when in doubt, they pick someone from NSW.
Fairly selective 'proof' if you ask me (which you didn't

). While none of the players listed are champions you have to go back to the time that they were selected to discuss the merits of their selection. At the time Gilbert and Bennett were selected in particular there were a lot of dodgy players getting a gig due to the Rebel tours and that Australian cricket was at it's weakest point, perhaps ever.
Dyer was just one of many dodgy keepers we had after Marsh and before Healy and if Wayne Phillips was good enough at test level Dyer wouldn't have got the gig in the first place. Knocking Holland or Bennett is a bit rude as that 'one good test' was against one of the strongest test teams I have ever seen (Windies 84-85) and played a significant role in ending a run of 11 test victories for the then world champions (check out how many players Australia went through that season). Holland got a gig in England in 1985 on the strength of that test, and remember there was no Warne back then, heck, there wasn't even a Tim May or Stewie Magill back then.
People also forget that Shane Lee was a more than a handy cricketer. If injuries hadn't curtailed his career he could have been that allrounder that Australia has so desperately been seeking for so long, Lee could play make no mistake. Phil Emery was just in the right place at the right time when Healy got injured. Some of the other keepers who were in the running included such lightweights as Richard Soule( ho ho), Darren Berry and Peter Anderson, Emery was better than all of them and deserved the one shot he had (not sure if Tim Zoehrer was still around but he had a Hookesy/Jones outspokeness that probably cost him).
Gavin Robertson? Yep, can't defend that selection as he was a poor man's Greg Matthews, but again, in the right place at the right time. As for the biggest population..what a crock of 5hit that arguement is...if that was a true indicator of cricket talent we would never win the Ashes because England's population is bigger. And as for getting a one day guernsey, there are dodgy players from every state who managed that, not just the Blues (and it still happens today, Johnson's not ready and White is nowhere near it IMO).
The NSW myth is one of the biggest jokes around in domestic cricket. Do you
honestly think that the selectors give a 5hit what state the player comes from when they sit down to select the national side? And if it is true, that NSW players get in first..well, it isn't working very well is it? Australian cricket is in real trouble and we can't win a test series because of all of these dodgy NSW blokes
NOT LMAO.
CASE DISMISSED
regards,
REB