Tuesday, September 20, 2005

Aussies Wring In The Changes

The axe has fallen upon several high-profile members of the Australian squad int he wake of the Ashes defeat. This was to be expected but some of it is particularly incomprehensible.

The biggest of which is the absolutely unfair sacking of Damien Martyn. True, he had a poor series, but he had at least 2 very bad decisions and 1 great ball. His innings at Lord's was instrumental in that lone victory and most importantly, he has scored 6 hundreds in the past year - a lot of which have been in the subcontinent the self-proclaimed final frontier. This is indeed shortchanging that brave General who played a leading role in capturing that frontier. I won't be surprised if Martyn is declared the ICC Test Player of The Year in October Ceremony and wouldn't that be an irony ?? To make matters significantly more incomprehensible, his replacement in the squad is an all-rounder Shane Watson. Nowhere close to the batsman Damien Martyn is. And the 2 young guns - Clarke and Katich haven't really established themselves firmly yet - they have definitely not set the world on fire. In the past, harsh decisions have paid dividends for Australia but this one is not just harsh - it is downright stupid in my opinion.

Much more understandable is the omission of Hayden from the ODI squad. I have maintained for a long time that he is a highly overrated ODI player. Also expected were the sackings of Gillespie and Kasprowicz.

What do you all think ? Esp the Aussie fans. The full story here.

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