SAFOOTY cricket forum users get it right

[smithy]

In a recent poll by the Sunday Mail, over 6000 people pretty much agree with what MOST OF US been saying on here for months and months.

Is Michael Clarke the right man to take over as next test captain.

YES - 25.4%
NO - 74.6% - What most of us have been saying

Who do you blame for Australia's slide to 5th in the test rankings

Tim Nielsen - 4.7%
Selectors - 47% - What most of us have been saying
Ricky Ponting - 8.4%
Batsman - Bowlers - Cricket Australia - 39.9%

Are the selectors doing a good job
Yes - 10%
No - 90% - What most of us have been saying

Opinion was divided if Mike hussey should still be in the test team at 47% for and 53% against.

Should Marcus North still be in the test team

YES - 30.7%
NO - 69.3% - Once again

Is Nathan Hauritz the answer to Australia's spin dilemma

YES - 14.7%
NO - 85.3% - Once again

Should Australia be promoting youth into the test side

YES - 82.5% and again
NO - 17.5%

If you could add one playeer into the team who would it be

Khawaja - 22.8%
Steve Smith - 18.9%
Steve O'Keefe - 1.7%
Callum Ferguson - 28%
Brett Lee - 12.7%
Phillip Hughes - 16%

There you have it, fair to say Hilditchs selectors career was about as good as his test career.......A failure.
Bring in Greg Chappell as chairman of selectors ASAP

[mal]

Michael Clarke is the obvious choice to be the next Test Skipper
Ive been impressed by his captaincy in the ODI games that he has captained

I think too may people are focussing on has lack of 20 /20 big hitting
Also he is being condemned for losses in India and home v SL when he has clearly had well below strength teams
Also when he captains he has not got PONTING in the team,

Give Clarke decent teams, and in particular goodish bowling attacks and he will do an adequate job as skipper

[smithy]

What has impressed you about his captaincy MAL ?
It ain't impressing too many other people so I'm very curious.

[Jim05]

Clarkes captaincy is amateurish at best. I fear he will get the job as the list of contenders isnt great. Depends when ponting goes. If he goes in next 12 months the job is clarkes

[Hondo]

Do we want to be linked to a poll from the Sunday Mail

6000 votes on an internet poll ... maybe 5000 bothered and some voted more than once? I reckon we'd have better cricket credentials on here.

Despite the sensationalised questions I'd argue that SAFooty has been more balanced than those poll results:

- we understand that alternative options to the current team are thin
- Hauritz gets a fair go from most on here (with some loud exceptions)
- most of us realise we have slipped to 5th not because of selection policy entirely but because we have recently lost some of the best players in our history to retirement and simply are no longer the best team. Selections have been open to question at times but it's not the main reason we have slipped. It's easy to be a good selector when McGrath and Warne anchor your attack, Gilly is your keeper and 7th batsman and you have worry about which batsman to leave out rather than promote.
- Clarke does has the L plates on with the captaincy but he remains our best next option and they have to groom someone. All that Sunday Mail poll shows is that he isn't popular with the fans.
- the question about which new player should come in highlights the exact problem we have in Aust cricket right now. Not Clarke, not the selectors, not Hauritz. We don't have the obvious stand out next players in line which makes it too easy to stick with what we have. Votes evenly spread around 5 players including Brett Lee They put his name in because even those who wrote the poll got stuck for names!

I am critical of the selectors not bringing in the next generation of batsman quick enough in favour of sticking with Hussey and North however I don't want my opinions on cricket associated with a popularity contest masquerading as a serious cricket poll on the AdelaideNow website!

[White Line Fever]

Smithy

Your avatars are disturbing.

[Dogmatic]

Give Clarke decent teams, and in particular goodish bowling attacks and he will do an adequate job as skipper

Wouldn't everybody?

[Booney]

Do we want to be linked to a poll from the Sunday Mail

6000 votes on an internet poll ... maybe 5000 bothered and some voted more than once? I reckon we'd have better cricket credentials on here.

Despite the sensationalised questions I'd argue that SAFooty has been more balanced than those poll results:

- we understand that alternative options to the current team are thin- Hauritz gets a fair go from most on here (with some loud exceptions)
- most of us realise we have slipped to 5th not because of selection policy entirely but because we have recently lost some of the best players in our history to retirement and simply are no longer the best team. Selections have been open to question at times but it's not the main reason we have slipped. It's easy to be a good selector when McGrath and Warne anchor your attack, Gilly is your keeper and 7th batsman and you have worry about which batsman to leave out rather than promote.
- Clarke does has the L plates on with the captaincy but he remains our best next option and they have to groom someone. All that Sunday Mail poll shows is that he isn't popular with the fans.
- the question about which new player should come in highlights the exact problem we have in Aust cricket right now. Not Clarke, not the selectors, not Hauritz. We don't have the obvious stand out next players in line which makes it too easy to stick with what we have. Votes evenly spread around 5 players including Brett Lee They put his name in because even those who wrote the poll got stuck for names!

I am critical of the selectors not bringing in the next generation of batsman quick enough in favour of sticking with Hussey and North however I don't want my opinions on cricket associated with a popularity contest masquerading as a serious cricket poll on the AdelaideNow website!

BOOM!

Try and select a second XI for Australian cricket, if you will. You think the first XI is meek....( thread coming )

[mal]

Internet polls accurate ?

Bit like when someone starts a well intentioned thread on SAFOOTY
If its a 50/50 thread
Often ones that disagree will post
Often the ones that agree have nothing to add and wont post

The timing of the poll stinks
Had the poll been done this time last year there would be very few grievances
Had the poll been made b4 the SL series then the day by day critics would have been quieter

[mal]

What has impressed you about his captaincy MAL ?
It ain't impressing too many other people so I'm very curious.

This is what impresses me
ODI
When Clarke is skipper, he does not have his best batsman in the team in Ricky Ponting , but he still wins games
His field placements and bowling changes are sound
He encourages his playes
I reckon he is 3 games for 1 win and 2 losses against IN and SL in recent times
In those games he was given inexperienced and largely impotent bowling resources
He has extracted 4 wickets on debut from DOHERTY and STARC in this period, give hme some credit for that

Prior to those 3 games with mainly good experienced attacks[ from memory] his captaincy and winning strike rates were good


I think a lot of people on SAFOOTY would be surprised by his win/loss ratios in ODI cricket

20/20
He is at a vast disadvantage when he is the 20/20 skipper
He has himself in the team


TEST SKIPPER
Time will tell

[Lightning McQueen]

What has impressed you about his captaincy MAL ?
It ain't impressing too many other people so I'm very curious.

His ability to turn nothing into a run out opportunity.............................or was it the other way around?

[sherminator]

This thread has given me an idea as to how Cricket Australia can improve their selection process ....

1. Sack all of the selectors
2. Set up a a reality tv show featuring the current side and 2nd XI
3. The public can phone one of those premium phone numbers or SMS the names of their fave player similar to Big Brother, X-Factor, Australian Idol etc.
4. CA can have a 'selection show' & 'elimination show' before and after each game to reveal who is playing and who will be dropped.

Financially CA will no longer need to pay selectors a salary plus they will make money on the phone calls.

As the Australian public have a better idea about singing 'talent' than record industry experts, surely we also know more about cricket than a bunch of ex-test players masquerading as selectors!

[Lightning McQueen]

This thread has given me an idea as to how Cricket Australia can improve their selection process ....

1. Sack all of the selectors
2. Set up a a reality tv show featuring the current side and 2nd XI
3. The public can phone one of those premium phone numbers or SMS the names of their fave player similar to Big Brother, X-Factor, Australian Idol etc.
4. CA can have a 'selection show' & 'elimination show' before and after each game to reveal who is playing and who will be dropped.

Financially CA will no longer need to pay selectors a salary plus they will make money on the phone calls.

As the Australian public have a better idea about singing 'talent' than record industry experts, surely we also know more about cricket than a bunch of ex-test players masquerading as selectors!

Good idea, players could gain immunity by performing instead of whatever criteria they are currently using.

[Rik E Boy]

This thread has given me an idea as to how Cricket Australia can improve their selection process ....

1. Sack all of the selectors
2. Set up a a reality tv show!

...finished reading right there.

regards,

REB

[sherminator]

This thread has given me an idea as to how Cricket Australia can improve their selection process ....

1. Sack all of the selectors
2. Set up a a reality tv show!

...finished reading right there.

regards,

REB

Haha! You didn't miss much REB. The post goes even further downhill from that point!

[Swamp Donkey]

Michael Clarke is the obvious choice to be the next Test Skipper
Ive been impressed by his captaincy in the ODI games that he has captained

I think too may people are focussing on has lack of 20 /20 big hitting
Also he is being condemned for losses in India and home v SL when he has clearly had well below strength teams
Also when he captains he has not got PONTING in the team,

Give Clarke decent teams, and in particular goodish bowling attacks and he will do an adequate job as skipper

He is ordinary under pressure and only performs when the heat comes off ala last night. His captaincy is well below par. I don't understand why crickAust has pidgeon holed him to be our next captain, its like its been written in concrete ever since Ponting took over. Pick the best captain for now, so we can actually win a crunch game, rather than picking a skipper that may be around the mark in 5 years.

[Lightning McQueen]

Michael Clarke is the obvious choice to be the next Test Skipper
Ive been impressed by his captaincy in the ODI games that he has captained

I think too may people are focussing on has lack of 20 /20 big hitting
Also he is being condemned for losses in India and home v SL when he has clearly had well below strength teams
Also when he captains he has not got PONTING in the team,

Give Clarke decent teams, and in particular goodish bowling attacks and he will do an adequate job as skipper

He is ordinary under pressure and only performs when the heat comes off ala last night. His captaincy is well below par. I don't understand why crickAust has pidgeon holed him to be our next captain, its like its been written in concrete ever since Ponting took over. Pick the best captain for now, so we can actually win a crunch game, rather than picking a skipper that may be around the mark in 5 years.

Who would you be looking at then?

[Hondo]

Pick the best captain for now, so we can actually win a crunch game, rather than picking a skipper that may be around the mark in 5 years.

Who is this person? Katich?

[Lightning McQueen]

Possible skipper?

Watto: No, would either under-bowl or over-bowl himself, probably lets himself down a bit with his on-field antics.
Katich: No, too old.
Hussey: No, too old.
North: No, needs to consolidate a spot before being considered.
Haddin: No, injury prone, ageing.
Any of the bowlers: No.

Like it or not, Clarke is really the only option that we have to take over the reigns, if he doesn't, it means we've wasted the last few years blooding him.

[Swamp Donkey]

Possible skipper?

Watto: No, would either under-bowl or over-bowl himself, probably lets himself down a bit with his on-field antics.
Katich: No, too old.
Hussey: No, too old.
North: No, needs to consolidate a spot before being considered.
Haddin: No, injury prone, ageing.
Any of the bowlers: No.

Like it or not, Clarke is really the only option that we have to take over the reigns, if he doesn't, it means we've wasted the last few years blooding him.

Not sure how you can be too old to be skipper but anyway, I would have thought an experienced level headed player like a Katich/Hussey would be far better option than Clarke who is ordinary under pressure. I don't really care if we have wasted time blooding him, its costed us a lot of games, and personally wouldnt mind that coming to a halt pretty soon.