Tweet
AUSTRALIA'S selectors have confirmed that the Sheffield Shield is irrelevant.
Almost no one takes any notice of it, particularly the selectors when they are choosing national sides.
Players are picked on hunches regardless of their statistics. This is not always a bad thing.
Any young player with outstanding potential should be promoted at the first opportunity so he is continually challenged and develops quickly.
Steve Waugh always said pick fast bowlers young because they are at their quickest, although Mitchell Johnson has proved an enormous exception to that rule lately.
The touring squad for South Africa chosen this week highlights why the Shield in an anachronism, an ancient invention built around arbitrary state borders which mean nothing in the modern age of international overload and Twenty20 franchises.
The selectors dropped George Bailey, 31, who was chosen on one-day form for all five Ashes Tests after averaging just 18 in the Shield last season. Then they picked Shaun Marsh, 30, on absolutely no form at all.
No one who had taken any notice of the Shield at any stage over the past three seasons could have chosen Marsh.
In 13 Shield matches for Western Australia during that time Marsh has made 595 runs with one century at an average under 26.
In five Shield matches this season another left hander, Phil Hughes, 25, has scored 549 runs at 61 with three centuries and a highest score of 204.
So the next time one of the selection panel, chairman John Inverarity, Rod Marsh, Andy Bichel or coach Darren Lehmann tell a dropped player to go back to Shield cricket and perform what should they do?
Should they laugh, poke their tongue out, raise their middle digit, produce a copy of Shaun Marsh's stats, or perhaps Bailey's from last season?
Marsh did make a Test century on debut in Sri Lanka two and a half years ago and was batting well in difficult circumstances against South Africa at Cape Town in the following series before suffering a back injury.
In his next series against India two summers ago Marsh made a total of 17 runs in four Tests at an average of 2.83.
Which Marsh will turn up in South Africa?
So let's dump the Shield, which merely clutters up the Australian season.
Greg Chappell once said that the Shield is club cricket in drag these days because so few international players represent their states.
This means the gulf between Shield and Test cricket is wider than in previous generations.
Chappell also once proposed that to bridge this gap and increase the quality of competition that the best 22 players in Shield cricket should play regular east versus west matches.
Let's ignore geography as well as statistics and simply pick two hunch teams.
We'll call them the green hunches and the gold hunches.
They can play a couple of games to start the season and then one before each Test at the Test venue in case the Green & Golds representing Australia need a replacement batsman, bowler, or wicketkeeper.
This would save cricket in Australia millions of dollars a year and the selectors the embarrassment of Shield statistics.
Almost no one takes any notice of it, particularly the selectors when they are choosing national sides.
Players are picked on hunches regardless of their statistics. This is not always a bad thing.
Any young player with outstanding potential should be promoted at the first opportunity so he is continually challenged and develops quickly.
Steve Waugh always said pick fast bowlers young because they are at their quickest, although Mitchell Johnson has proved an enormous exception to that rule lately.
The touring squad for South Africa chosen this week highlights why the Shield in an anachronism, an ancient invention built around arbitrary state borders which mean nothing in the modern age of international overload and Twenty20 franchises.
The selectors dropped George Bailey, 31, who was chosen on one-day form for all five Ashes Tests after averaging just 18 in the Shield last season. Then they picked Shaun Marsh, 30, on absolutely no form at all.
No one who had taken any notice of the Shield at any stage over the past three seasons could have chosen Marsh.
In 13 Shield matches for Western Australia during that time Marsh has made 595 runs with one century at an average under 26.
In five Shield matches this season another left hander, Phil Hughes, 25, has scored 549 runs at 61 with three centuries and a highest score of 204.
So the next time one of the selection panel, chairman John Inverarity, Rod Marsh, Andy Bichel or coach Darren Lehmann tell a dropped player to go back to Shield cricket and perform what should they do?
Should they laugh, poke their tongue out, raise their middle digit, produce a copy of Shaun Marsh's stats, or perhaps Bailey's from last season?
Marsh did make a Test century on debut in Sri Lanka two and a half years ago and was batting well in difficult circumstances against South Africa at Cape Town in the following series before suffering a back injury.
In his next series against India two summers ago Marsh made a total of 17 runs in four Tests at an average of 2.83.
Which Marsh will turn up in South Africa?
So let's dump the Shield, which merely clutters up the Australian season.
Greg Chappell once said that the Shield is club cricket in drag these days because so few international players represent their states.
This means the gulf between Shield and Test cricket is wider than in previous generations.
Chappell also once proposed that to bridge this gap and increase the quality of competition that the best 22 players in Shield cricket should play regular east versus west matches.
Let's ignore geography as well as statistics and simply pick two hunch teams.
We'll call them the green hunches and the gold hunches.
They can play a couple of games to start the season and then one before each Test at the Test venue in case the Green & Golds representing Australia need a replacement batsman, bowler, or wicketkeeper.
This would save cricket in Australia millions of dollars a year and the selectors the embarrassment of Shield statistics.
Comment