Many of you have already said it. But Warnes influence on selections has been diabolical. You blokes here to give credit have been talking O'Keefe up and his first class record is very strong over a long period of time. To think he's had to wait behind blokes like Doherty, Beer, McGain just beggars belief. It was like there was a constant fascination to pick a bolter often endorsed by someone like Warne in the hope they could miraculously uncover the next big thing from nowhere, but the answer has always been there performing well, consistently over a long period of time. Genuinely happy for the guy.
When they are old and on their death beds, McGain and Beer can both single-handedly thank Warne for their test careers. Both of them were ushered into the test team solely off the back of Warne's comments in the media about them.
O'Keefe has an excellent first-class record, and was the leading spinner in Sheffield Shield for a long time but sadly at 32yrs old, doesn't have a lot of opportunities left in his career.
A shame that the peak years of his career (before injuries) - his 20's - coincided with Ponting/Clarke's captaincy. Clarke, as you know...something must've happened between the two of them which is why he only played one test under his captaincy (and had to wait until 2014 for that). Ponting had his favourites, and why schmos such as Marcus North repeatedly selected.
With the recent 12 wicket haul, O'Keefe now has 237 wickets from 67 first-class matches at an average of 22.90. I just hope he continues his good form just to rub it in to Warne and Clarke, especially after being referred to as a 'white-ball specialist', which is complete crap and shows Warne's ignorance, given O'Keefe averages 55.89 in List A/domestic limited overs matches.
