So Hildick was every bit as bad as we thought.

http://www.theage.com.au/sport/cricket/its-surprising-the-hilditch-era-lasted-so-long-20110819-1j2il.html

So the story goes, Hilditch recently phoned a member of team
management in Sri Lanka to inform him Aaron Finch would be left out of
the Twenty20 team. When Hilditch was asked why, he said the selectors
felt Shaun Marsh was a better proposition against destructive fast
bowler Lasith Malinga. Malinga, though, was injured, and had been
publicly ruled out of the series.
The exchange suggests a scarcely believable lack of
awareness, and while cricket insiders laugh in telling the story, its
theme is a common one when the topic of selection is raised.
Dissatisfaction with feedback from the selectors was a
striking feature of the review, and players who did speak to Hilditch
often felt he had little grasp of their domestic performances; one
experienced batsman was told he could enhance his prospects by opening
the batting for his state, but had been doing just that for some time.
Others were sent back to state cricket, never to hear
from the selectors again. This contrasts with recent insights from
England's Stuart Broad on his side's rise to No. 1.

R

Just a few gems in what implies are many such stories.

Ho.Lee.Fark. I guess that shouldn't surprise me, given the cluelessness of Hildick in the past 5 years.

I hope Fleas sues the fark out of him (yeah, yeah, I know that probably won't or can't happen, but Simon must be hellishly aggrieved AGAIN given recent developments).

Hildick - the biggest c0ck to sully Aus cricket - EVER.

How much beef did he eat while he was in England in 1985?

simpson is the poisonous almond kernel at the centre of all that is wrong with Oz cricket

Kernel Bustard - with the lead piping - in the pavilion?

more Prof rotten Plums in the greenhouse

skully wrote:Ho.Lee.Fark. I guess that shouldn't surprise me, given the cluelessness of Hildick in the past 5 years.

I hope Fleas sues the fark out of him (yeah, yeah, I know that probably won't or can't happen, but Simon must be hellishly aggrieved AGAIN given recent developments).

Hildick - the biggest c0ck to sully Aus cricket - EVER.

I wonder if Hildick is watching the Champs v Chumps series from England



Fleas discarded at 36 for being too old - Dravid 3 tons in 4 games at 38

He can only see VVS and SRT

Not that I want to defend Hilditch (I even feel cheap and dirty just saying that...) but:

Tendulkar 217* runs, HS 56, in 4 games (with his final innings to be concluded today) at 38.

Laxman 182 runs, HS 33, in 4 games at the age of 36

it indicates that age in itself is not a reason to be dropped.



If he said you are old and sh1t then that would have been fair enough

"one experienced batsman was told he could enhance his prospects by opening
the batting for his state, but had been doing just that for some time."

There is a story that the last straw for Nicky (in wozzie) was when a state selector told him he needed to score runs like his brother (in the week after he was coming off 3 consecutive 100's at Wanneroo and Paris was coming off 3 ducks )

Perhaps these sorts of comments are in the procedures manual for Selectors

Zat wrote:Not that I want to defend Hilditch (I even feel cheap and dirty just saying that...) but:

Tendulkar 217* runs, HS 56, in 4 games (with his final innings to be concluded today) at 38.

Laxman 182 runs, HS 33, in 4 games at the age of 36

Sage ...

The Katich dropping/axing is "funny" ...

Hildy and Co are widely criticised for not dropping the old qunts from the team (Paris/Punter/Lee/Nicky etc) and equally criticised for dropping an old qunt for the reason that he was old

It could be argued that they decided to drop the wrong old qunt...

Zat wrote:Not that I want to defend Hilditch (I even feel cheap and dirty just saying that...) but:

Tendulkar 217* runs, HS 56, in 4 games (with his final innings to be concluded today) at 38.

Laxman 182 runs, HS 33, in 4 games at the age of 36

What were their records last year at 37 and 35?

Zat wrote:It could be argued that they decided to drop the wrong old qunt...

This would be my line of argument. Given the relative records over the previous 3 years, Fleas must have felt like killing Hildick for making him the face of "the way forward" by dropping him.

And for today, the role of Captain Obvious will be played by JGK.

I think that's the thing which really pisses Katich and his followers off. You look at performances first and then other factors. If age was seen to be a factor worth considering then you marry the two and surely Punter and Hussey were in the gun before him. The former has been captain (may flourish without it) and seemingly still has some credit in the bank. Hussey looked on death row twice until reprieved first, at The Oval by sloppy catching and then famously by Kamran at Sydney.

Changes surely had to be made at the end of the 2009 Ashes.

Red wrote:
Changes surely had to be made at the end of the 2009 Ashes.

Red I can't see how any further changes would have made the slightest difference.

Since the previous Ashes two years previously, Aus had seen the end of two openers, a wicketkeeper/bat and three bowlers all of whom were among the very best of their generation. Their replacements were - in some cases - barely up to Test standard, but presumably they were the best players available for selection.

Your "old guard" ( Ponting/Hussey/Katich ) gave the team a core of battle-hardened veterans who were still better than the youngsters but with the experience of pressure matches to pass on. Ditching one or two of them would surely have made the situation even worse?

Maybe Hussey though. You could argue that while a youngster or even someone younger than him may not have been bashing the door down, there was little point in continuing with an inconsistent Hussey. There was still experience in the team with Punter, Clarke, Katich and Haddin. The biggest reason for some change perhaps was that in the Windies and Pakistan, you had a summer where trialling some youngsters may not have proven fatal. A year later against the poms we had the situation where we needed to bring them in during a series when the confidence of the older players was already shot.

you can argue that ... and then realise Hussey was our best batsman for the summer ... by some distance

What a silly stance. Especially as IMO Aus had the better of that Ashes, they just lost to some frankly barnstorming bowling.

lardbucket wrote:you can argue that ... and then realise Hussey was our best batsman for the summer ... by some distance

Although in the crunch matches towards the end he scored very little.

You really are a bitter piece of work.

Without him, it'd have been 5-0.

lardbucket wrote:You really are a bitter piece of work.

Without him, it'd have been 5-0.

Doubt it. Brisbane became such a road it was always destined to be a draw.

Sometime you just have to make the right call on 35+ batsmen; it's the hallmark of good selection. Hohns knew when to pull the pin.