Cricket Australia contracts

[spell_check]

Dizzy has not done anything wrong, so he should be there anyway, but I wouldn't be surprised if he had missed out.

[mal]

TASSIES X1 is logical but I hope if Hussey opens he dosent slump in form.
When your on a good thing stick to it [LAW ] keep him in the middle order

[am Bays]

His record as an opener for WA is just a passmark

It was his record as an opener for WA that got him selected for Australia in the first place, Mal - the last time he opened for Australia he tonned up (100 + at Hobart in 2005 v WI)

I can understand your reasoning for keeping him as a middle order player becuase he has been so successful but the best batsman outside the test side prior to Langer's retirement is Hodge and he is in the form of his life ATM.

Hodge will get first crack at a test spot in November.

The rest of the side picks itself except for the spinners spot, wouldn't be surprised if Hogg gets a go instead of MacGill but I think they'll go for MacGill first up.

They'll want to use Tait while he is still quick, if they keep him on the shelf for too long his natural speed will wane and his effectiveness (greatest asset) as a bowler will be lost.

[mal]

TASSIE
Just another shield batsman averaging about 50 opening [dime a dozen ]
Used to see him play for WA V SA a few times at Adelaide Oval and did not dominate
Dunno , maybe his county form in England was good as opener ????
On his Australian domestic form I was mildly surprised when he was selected.

With TAIT you are reiterating what the illustrious ADELAIDE HAWK used to say about him

[Aerie]

Regardless of who gets picked, the Aussie squad still looks very strong on paper. I wouldn't have said this before last years Ashes series. Only time will tell if we can still regularly win without the Warne/McGrath influence. I guess we are lucky we have the batting equivalent of Warne & McGrath still at first drop for a number of years to come and from there we can rebuild our batting order.

I look forward to see how the Australian Cricket team goes over the remainder of Ponting's reign. The time has almost come for the next generation to take over.

[smithy]

TASSIE
Just another shield batsman averaging about 50 opening [dime a dozen ]
Used to see him play for WA V SA a few times at Adelaide Oval and did not dominate
Dunno , maybe his county form in England was good as opener ????
On his Australian domestic form I was mildly surprised when he was selected.

With TAIT you are reiterating what the illustrious ADELAIDE HAWK used to say about him

Show me how may openers averaged 50 last season Mal?

Hussey must open, now he's comfortable as a test player I'm sure he'll do well.
As for tait, didn't Chappelli once say " use them whilst you can" or something to that effect.
With the downfall of Akhtar, Tait is without doubt the quickest on the planet as proved when he and Bing Lee opened in the 1 dayer last year. Tait was 10 KPH quicker than Brett in the same deck.

Sorry if that was disagreeing with AH ?
Where has he gone ?

[spell_check]

TASSIE
Just another shield batsman averaging about 50 opening [dime a dozen ]
Used to see him play for WA V SA a few times at Adelaide Oval and did not dominate
Dunno , maybe his county form in England was good as opener ????
On his Australian domestic form I was mildly surprised when he was selected.

With TAIT you are reiterating what the illustrious ADELAIDE HAWK used to say about him

Show me how may openers averaged 50 last season Mal?

Hussey must open, now he's comfortable as a test player I'm sure he'll do well.
As for tait, didn't Chappelli once say " use them whilst you can" or something to that effect.
With the downfall of Akhtar, Tait is without doubt the quickest on the planet as proved when he and Bing Lee opened in the 1 dayer last year. Tait was 10 KPH quicker than Brett in the same deck.

Sorry if that was disagreeing with AH ?
Where has he gone ?

He stopped posting on here because MaddogMike wasn't banned.

[mal]

SMITHY

HUSSEY is having a phenominal run batting at 5-6 in test cricket
Why risk that

[smithy]

SMITHY

HUSSEY is having a phenominal run batting at 5-6 in test cricket
Why risk that

No doubt about it Mal.
he is an opener though, so my thinking was that now he has made it as a test player he can get out of the comfort zone and open for australia.
Booney and langer did it.
Why not the HUSS

[mal]

SMITHY

HUSSEY is having a phenominal run batting at 5-6 in test cricket
Why risk that

No doubt about it Mal.
he is an opener though, so my thinking was that now he has made it as a test player he can get out of the comfort zone and open for australia.
Booney and langer did it.
Why not the HUSS

Im just hoping he succeeds in any position that he is placed
Might be better opening in the sub continent as I think he is
a liitle suspect against quality spinners, he prefers quicker bowlers

Whilst on HUSS he has not performed on overseas tours AS YET

[Hondo]

I'd give an established opener the start and see how he goes. I know Hussey is an established opener but I'd leave him where he is for starters given how successful he has been at no 5. So I'd go with:

Hayden
Jacques
Ponting
Clarke
Hussey
Symonds
Gilchrist
Lee
Clark
Tait
Macgill

Straight swaps for Langer, Warne & McGrath, in position. Watson on hand if Symonds loses form in no 6. If Jacques struggles, I'd put Hussey to open and slot Hodge in to number 5 ie, Tassie's team.

The batting depth is not what is was. Hodge, Watson and Voges seem the only middle order back-ups.

[Rik E Boy]

hondos team is OTM (Ack!! I agreed with hondo...what's happening EEEK ). Jaques not only deserves first crack but he needs to be left in the side for a full summer. Jaques has been in and out of the side and has been dropped after knocking up scores and retained at other times after failing. Let him know he's the main man and watch his bollocks grow.

regards,

BRIKtop

[am Bays]

hondos team is OTM (Ack!! I agreed with hondo...what's happening EEEK ). Jaques not only deserves first crack but he needs to be left in the side for a full summer. Jaques has been in and out of the side and has been dropped after knocking up scores and retained at other times after failing. Let him know he's the main man and watch his bollocks grow.

regards,

BRIKtop

You can't be serious - how can you say say Jaques deserves first crack when in every batting department he has been out batted by Hodge?? How can you pick a bloke who only made 330 mores runs (1100 @ 53 in 22 innings) compared to a bloke who made 770 odd runs in half the innings (11 @ 85) in the last 1st class summer?? No rational way can you pick Jaques before Hodge

Especially when you consider 111 of his runs came aginst England in that relatively meaningless game in November Hodge didn't get a chance to cash in against the POMs.

Shield cricket Jaques only scored 987 runs in 20 innings compared to Hodge 767 in 11. When they both played for Australia Hodge scored runs (129 @ 64.5) Jaques didn't (4 @ 2) (Chappell Hadlee series).

I admit Jaques is a good bat and will get his chance but no way can Jaques be picked ahead of Hodge ATM

Even Rodgers has better claims ATM than Jaques.

[mal]

TASSIE we all know HODGE is superior to JAQUES + ROGERS
But we are filling up the openers spot not a middle order spot
On that basis he dosent fit in [unless Hussey opens]

[am Bays]

On that basis he dosent fit in [unless Hussey opens]

Which is what should happen given that Hussey started his career as an opener....

[smithy]

TASSIE we all know HODGE is superior to JAQUES + ROGERS
But we are filling up the openers spot not a middle order spot
On that basis he dosent fit in [unless Hussey opens]

That's why I said Hussey should open Mal.

Much easier to find a 4,5 or 6 than a quality opener.

Jaques has missed the boat I reckon, not that I think Hodge has a long test career ahead of him either.

[mal]

SMITHY/TASSIE you guys have talked me into it
Lets open with HUSSEY [for team balance] and
make a spot for HODGE or WATSON [ sorry punk/rod/hawk ...]

[rod_rooster]

SMITHY/TASSIE you guys have talked me into it
Lets open with HUSSEY [for team balance] and
make a spot for HODGE or WATSON [ sorry punk/rod/hawk ...]

If you are picking purely on batting Watson isn't anywhere near the top 6 batsmen in the country and you know it mal.

[Hondo]

Hodge is very unlucky not to have played more test cricket and is a quality player however I would be reluctant to shift Hussey from no 5 seeing as he has done so well there. You sort of end up making 2 changes to the successful line-up (1 shift Hussey, 2 bring in a new no 5) when we only need to replace Langer.

I think either line up could do the job so I wouldn't be devastated if Hodge earned his spot back. Hussey could play anywhere from 1-6 which makes him such a valuable player for us.

I'm still not clear why Hodge lost his spot to bring back Martyn anyway but that's probably a whole other debate that's been done before here.

[mal]

SMITHY/TASSIE you guys have talked me into it
Lets open with HUSSEY [for team balance] and
make a spot for HODGE or WATSON [ sorry punk/rod/hawk ...]

If you are picking purely on batting Watson isn't anywhere near the top 6 batsmen in the country and you know it mal.

36 MINUTES...

WATSON s batting in the last 2 years in pura cup cricket as as good as Mike Husseys .....