SA Footy

I know this has been mentioned on other threads but i thought it deserved a thread of it's own. It appears that Shane Watson may be out of the rest of the World Cup with a calf strain sustained in last nights game against Bangladesh. This news will make many rejoice and will in most likelihood reduce mal to tears

What are people's thoughts? Personally i don't like to see players injured and despite the fact that i don't agree with his selection i wouldn't wish him any harm. He has had his fair share of injury problems and for his sake i wish him all the best. Having said that i am pleased, not about the injury, but with the opportunity this will give Brad Hodge to take back his rightful place in the Aussie lineup.

Will it be Hodge?

Or will they bring Clark or Johnson in?

For mine what Watson bring to the side as a bowler compared to his batting is more important.

he gives that flexibility to mix and match the 4-6 bowling spots.

Just a thought...

rod_rooster wrote:I know this has been mentioned on other threads but i thought it deserved a thread of it's own. It appears that Shane Watson may be out of the rest of the World Cup with a calf strain sustained in last nights game against Bangladesh. This news will make many rejoice and will in most likelihood reduce mal to tears

What are people's thoughts? Personally i don't like to see players injured and despite the fact that i don't agree with his selection i wouldn't wish him any harm. He has had his fair share of injury problems and for his sake i wish him all the best. Having said that i am pleased, not about the injury, but with the opportunity this will give Brad Hodge to take back his rightful place in the Aussie lineup.

Cricket selectors like football selectors have to think twice about injury prone players - I doubt the wisdom of the Crows for example keeping on Welsh.

yay!!!!!

well surprise me with this one......

I heard that Watson sneezed and broke a rib

No suprise...selectors have a lot to answer for here...should have never gone

whatson a shame the aussies will be even stronger now no matter who they bring in be it hodge,clark or johnson . m.clarke and symo can easily make up his overs . who ever they bring in will bring strength to that certian aspect of the game eg. hodge with the bat the other with the ball

He is still a young man
I will have to ring him up and give him the benefit of my infinite wisdom.

" Shane give up bowling , its serves its purpose for team balance but it is
ruining your career. You have too many soft tissue injuries as a result of
the strain of bowling."
You used to bowl 140ks these days your nursing yourself at 130 odd, no more mate."
" **** the selectors mate and remember an old Masters Apprentices song and listen
to these words mate/ " DO WHAT YOU WANNA DO BE WHAT YOU WANNA BE YEAH."

" You gave up bowling once before and concentrated on your batting and blossomed,
you went back to the pura cup and dominated batting in the top order, ya made 201
in a pura cup final on the biggest domestic stage."

" Shane your whole future is your batting, my advice is go back to the pura cup and OPEN
the batting mate, HAYDO will retire soon, LANGER has gone and your country needs you
to be an opening batsman."

" THANKS MAL , AND ALSO THANKS FOR DEFENDING ME IN THE SAFOOTY SITE."

_________________________________________________________________________

PS he made 201 in a pura cup final guess how was out

the wonder elephant wrote:whatson a shame the aussies will be even stronger now no matter who they bring in be it hodge,clark or johnson . m.clarke and symo can easily make up his overs . who ever they bring in will bring strength to that certian aspect of the game eg. hodge with the bat the other with the ball

Fair enough argument BUT
Can HODGE bowl overs in a power play
Can CLARK/JOHNSON make runs at a strike rate of about 130 odd that WATSON has on tour

The balance is now stuffed
If you play a bowler to replace WATSON =

7 HOGG
8 CLARK
9 BRACKEN
10 TAIT
11 MCGARTH

Not the greatest 7-8-9-10-11 batting line up

IF you play HODGE as a batsman the bowling attack =

BRACKEN
TAIT
MCGRATH
-------------
SYMONDS
CLARKE
HODGE

WATSON has come on bowling in over 16 in powerplays of late
Gee im sure an unfit ROY and 2 part time spinners can do any better


Can you imagine Kevin PIETERSON facing SYMONDS/CLARK/HODGE

The Australian selectors knew what they were doing.

mal wrote:
The balance is now stuffed
If you play a bowler to replace WATSON =

7 HOGG
8 CLARK
9 BRACKEN
10 TAIT
11 MCGARTH

Not the greatest 7-8-9-10-11 batting line up

IF you play HODGE as a batsman the bowling attack =

BRACKEN
TAIT
MCGRATH
-------------
SYMONDS
CLARKE
HODGE

WATSON has come on bowling in over 16 in powerplays of late
Gee im sure an unfit ROY and 2 part time spinners can do any better


Can you imagine Kevin PIETERSON facing SYMONDS/CLARK/HODGE

The Australian selectors knew what they were doing.

Spot on MAL whilst not being as good as bat as Hodge or as good as bowler as Clark/Johnson Watson is more valuable to the one-day side IMHO becasue his skills make him a damn good # 7 (or opener when Hayden retires) and fourth change bowler.

This is especially so right now that Lee isn't in the team ATM with his above average batting skills for a bowler.

You did forget Hogg MAL, but the part time spin of Clarke and Hodge would be cannon fodder on the against the better batting teams in this World Cup and is Symo's biceps up to a 10 over spell?

agree to some point but have aust batted lower than 7 or 8 yet in the world cup ? extra bowling fire power will make 4 smaller totals to chase or make it easier to defend if batting first . what other options are there ? ho will the replace watson with in the squad ? if they can replace him in the squad they couldnt do a lot worse than bringing in james hopes or vogles from wa !!

the wonder elephant wrote:agree to some point but have aust batted lower than 7 or 8 yet in the world cup ? extra bowling fire power will make 4 smaller totals to chase or make it easier to defend if batting first . what other options are there ? ho will the replace watson with in the squad ? if they can replace him in the squad they couldnt do a lot worse than bringing in james hopes or vogles from wa !!

Having a 7 that is a genuine batsman[WATSON] means the top 6 can bat with flair
If you have HOGG and 4 rabbits to follow how does the top 6 approach the game

WATSONS efforts
Just for the record 74 runs in 44 balls on tour[not icluding 55 + 81 in the scratch matches]
about 23 overs 1/101 thats just over 4 an over on primary school grounds[very good for a 5th bowler]

This is not test cricket wherea 5th bowler bowls about 10% of the overs
This is o/d cricket and a 5th bowler has to bowl the same overs[10] as the strike bowlers

bring dizzy over then the only man to make a test double hundred and be dropped !!mal seriously though they would be better off bringing hopes out then his bowling is up to scratch and can also hold a bat or what about damien wright from tassie more than handy with bat and ball .they will bring someone out to replace him i presume ?

mal, the dilemma for Watson is that if he gives up bowling he knows that he is not good enough to make the Australian side as a batsmen only. This is not to say he isn't good enough to play at international level but he knows that there are too many guys who are better batsmen than he is in Australia. I'm sure he could succeed as a batsman but there is no way he is even close to being in the top 6 batsmen in the country. There are plenty of players over the years that would have made very good International batsmen but were just not good enough to get in ahead of others. Give up bowling and give up on playing International cricket Watto.

Here you go mal, some better news for you:

http://www.foxsports.com.au/story/0,8659,21488463-5012554,00.html

On the other hand, could Crash Craddock be on the money?

http://www.foxsports.com.au/story/0,8659,21487689-5012554,00.html

I really feel for Shane Watson, he has been most unlucky when it has come to injuries.

Both Craddock and Mal have made good points, which I agree with - Watson needs to evaluate what fast bowling is doing to his body and how it will not only affect his cricketing future, but also his future out of the game. Surely these injuries are going to cost him when he is older - he'll probably be barely able to walk when he is 55!

The potential is there for Watson to become a great opening batsman. He is technically sound, can attack when required and with more of his time directed at improving his batting he could be the obvious choice as an opening replacement when Gilchrist/Hayden retire from ODI's and Hayden from Tests. Who knows - he could also bowl 5 overs here or there in the odd match and take a wicket or two!

rod_rooster wrote:On the other hand, could Crash Craddock be on the money?

http://www.foxsports.com.au/story/0,8659,21487689-5012554,00.html

The greatest cricket writer in my opinion has always been CRADDOCK
He is impeccably accurate with his articles
He predicts with uncanny accuracy[must get insider trading to be that good]
His article on WATINJURYNEXTSON is absolutely spot on
He has brought up the same LOGICAL ideologies on the WATSON/ALLROUNDER saga

These quotes also found in the MAL files over the past 6 months
in which CRADDOCK has re-iterated as per the article

NO ALLROUNDERS SINCE MILLER
INJURY PRONE
DIFFICULT ROLES ON ALLROUNDERS
BOWLS 140 BUT THE BODY CANT COPE
AUSTRALIAN SELECTORS LOVE HIM
TESTS WITH NO WARNE + MCGRATH= NO MORE 3 DAY TESTS[=ALLROUNDER NEEDED]
RIVAL PLAYERS UPSET HE GETS SO MANY CHANCES
EXPERIMENT CANT GO ON FOREVER

Its ironical a day after my post that cricket writers have a similar assessment