Chip Bayless
Juniors
- Messages
- 655
Good call. Haven't considered as Siddle comes across as one who you would have to chain to the seat so he didn't run out and play. Definitely merit to idea. He has earned a spell no doubt.
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Starc is 21, plenty of time. If he keeps making each opportunity a winner like he did in Perth, he won't be ignored. 
me too! Give me test cricket or give death.
disagree, if Test cricket is like having a meal at a really good restaurant, then T20 is more like eating people's leftovers from a dumpster. If you're no accustomed to real food, then you like it for sustenance, but if you are, you're repulsed by the thought of it
Umbrella of ageing stars provides shelter for young talent to grow into their own thick skins..
Malcolm Knox
January 16, 2012
http://www.smh.com.au/sport/cricket/umbrella-of-ageing-stars-provides-shelter-for-young-talent-to-grow-into-their-own-thick-skins-20120115-1q1gm.html
I have lost count of how many times this season I've heard that good players at the end of their careers deserve one series too many rather than one too few. It's been mainly Australians who have been saying it. While painful to watch, the death-throes of India's once-Fab Four haven't proved the theory wrong. In a way, they've proved it right, and their presence has allowed the blossoming of a new generation of talent on both teams.
Important role ... Ricky Ponting. Photo: Getty Images
The stars of this match were inexperienced Test cricketers: David Warner, Ed Cowan, Ben Hilfenhaus, Mitchell Starc, Ryan Harris, Peter Siddle, Umesh Yadav and Virat Kohli. This group of eight players came into the match with 74 Test appearances between them. They utterly outshone a collection of 14 other players with 1162 Tests' experience. It's been a real-life version of Cricket Superstar.
The logic in retaining old players isn't just to squeeze out the last drops of performance and wisdom. Nor is it indulgence to the elderly. Sachin Tendulkar, Ricky Ponting, Rahul Dravid, Mike Hussey, V.V.S. Laxman, Virender Sehwag and Zaheer Khan have all given something to this series, but only dreamers would believe these men can reverse the pull of time. Where these players serve the process of renewal is as a kind of umbrella under which young talent can grow. The waves of criticism battering the Indian veterans have actually diverted pressure from Kohli and Gautam Gambhir, two young players who have shown great class by being able to reverse form slumps in the middle of a tough series. A decade ago, Justin Langer did this in the West Indies and it was his making.
Likewise, the endless hand-wringing over Ponting and Hussey has sheltered Warner and company. Sometimes a team needs these veterans as human heatshields.
The Australian team is a snake shedding its skin. Before the old layer peels off completely, it has to hang around, not because it's still alive but because it's providing protection for the next layer. The trick, now, is for the old layer to let go when it's best for the body. As thoughts turn to England 2013, although Ponting, Hussey and Brad Haddin would like to live forever and reclaim the Ashes, now is the time to feel optimistic about the look of an Australian top seven of Warner, Cowan, Khawaja, Clarke, Marsh, Watson and Wade or Nevill, with a bowling crew of Pattinson, Cummins, Hilfenhaus, Siddle, Starc, Harris and Lyon.
For India, the enormous pain will be anaesthetised by a future schedule of sparse Test matches in helpful home conditions. The likes of Kohli, Gambhir, Rohit Sharma, Cheteshwar Pujara and Suresh Raina form a reasonable batting nucleus, while Yadav, Ishant Sharma and Ravi Ashwin can power the bowling as long as they survive the depredations of Twenty20 cricket. And of course, if India is a powerhouse in more than just name, it will quickly produce champions we haven't heard of yet.
While sporting conflicts are continuous, always rolling from one into the next, it's probably a moment to reflect on a few things.
This series, for Australia, was predicted to be a bloodbath after the embarrassments of Cape Town and Hobart. Clarke and the new management have been vindicated, and the team has played the most attractive, forceful, fresh cricket that has been seen in the five years since the retirement of Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath. Much will be said about the weakness of the opposition, but if you look at the Australians' bowling in all three Tests, wickets have not fallen through bad batting so much as the bowlers' discipline and mastery of the moving ball. A year ago, gun-barrel Australian bowling was getting flayed. Now they can swing it again. They have beaten India, not just let an ageing team beat itself.
The match ended with Siddle, the final wicket-taker, making a beeline for deep point, where he embraced Warner, the man of the match. After their team cuddle, the Australians shook hands with a dejected line-up including four batsmen whose deeds will be talked about as long as the game is played. On the scoreboard, off went the present players' nameplates and up went, on one side, Western Australia's team of the century - Lillee, two Marshes, Alderman, McKenzie and the rest - and on the other, the Perth Scorchers, who include another Marsh we'll be seeing more of. Two eras of history cross paths, shake hands, and go their separate ways.
