sorry to be so slack, but this attitude just blew me away! i don't know why, its not like we haven't seen this sort of arrogance before.
on ninemsn:
Chairman of selectors Andrew Hilditch on Monday refused to blame his panel for Australia's shattering loss of the Ashes to England.
Australia's 197-run loss in the fifth Test at The Oval on Sunday, which delivered England a 2-1 series victory, led all the news bulletins in sports-obsessed Australia on Monday as the ramifications sank in.
Ricky Ponting's captaincy and the selectors' decision-making came under fire for the series loss but they appeared likely to hold on to their positions with Cricket Australia's chief executive James Sutherland fully supportive of their performances.
Hilditch admitted his panel erred by not choosing specialist spinner Nathan Hauritz for the final Test, but he refused to blame the selection of an unbalanced side on a spin-friendly pitch for Australia's humiliating defeat.
Ponting became only the second Australian skipper in more than a century to have twice lost an Ashes series in England, and Hilditch said he was gutted and in a state of disbelief over the final Test defeat inside four days.
"We would've changed the side (from the fourth Headingley Test) if we'd read the wicket right, and we would've played Nathan Hauritz," Hilditch told a news conference in Adelaide on Monday.
"But it would be an over-simplification to say that meant we lost the Test match, that'd be incorrect. We lost the Test match because we got 160 in the first innings.
"Jamie Cox was the selector on duty, but everybody misread the wicket, from our entire playing group, captain and coach included, and that just happens.
"To see the hard work that all those players put in, a very important series for everybody, to see it fall apart at The Oval was hard for everybody."
Hilditch, who has been a frequent target of critics during his controversial tenure as chairman, said he was shocked by the Ashes outcome.
"I'm feeling gutted and in some disbelief over the last couple of days," he said.
"The traditional signs of who's going to win a Test series are all there and it should have been Australia.
"We had six of the top seven batsmen, 10 centuries, eight of them Australian, the three leading bowlers in the series were all Australian.
"Everything indicates that we dominated the Test series."
But he said that "we lost the Test series through five hours of cricket. We lost the Test series in the last hour in Cardiff (first Test) when we should have won. I thought at the time it was going to hurt us, which it did.
Other key phases were "two hours of batting at Lord's in the second Test and maybe even an hour's batting at The Oval in the first innings, when we really needed to get 400-500 runs and get into a good position.
"The Test series really came down to us losing key moments and England winning key moments. It didn't come down to individuals, it came down to England winning the critical moments and (us) losing them."
Hilditch said Australian cricket was in a rebuilding phase following the keenly felt retirements of Shane Warne, Adam Gilchrist, Matthew Hayden and Glenn McGrath.
"The reality check is we're a young side, a rebuilding side, we've lost a lot of great players but had no time to reflect on that, we've got to reflect on the future," he said.
"We're going to have ups and downs in performance over the next couple of years while we continue a rebuilding process.
"The process is far from over. We've still got players we're going to lose in the next couple of years."
I don't really disagree with much Hilditch has said, Stoph. Once the touring party was selected; that was who would tour. I would argue the squad wasn't perfect but none of us were too vocal about it 2 months ago. I think he's right about the reasons Aus lost the Ashes. Timing of performances must be the key if you have dominated with the bat and ball overall.
ReplyDeleteI'm sick of the 'transitional phase' crap as it is already long in the tooth. My issue is that the same can happen again very easily. Aus has one of the best sides in the world but it fires too irregularly and unexpectantly to fill you with great hope. When we needed blokes to stand up in the first dig at the Oval noone could. They all waited til it was too late. Give Broad his due, though, he bowled incredibly.
Hilditch may be a chump but he didn't lose the Ashes. Nor did Ponting. These guys know what their roles are. Johnson bowled crap too much, Hussey forgot how to bat, not enough runs from the lower order (while their's did). While I don't rate Ponting as a captain or a leader (well, he's just not a leader) he didn't have too many options with the ball when things weren't going great. You pick guys who can get 10 wickets and when they can't you will be in the proverbial.
Sure Ponting could develop more or better plans for batsmen and innovative field placings, but you could see Aus had plans for each batsman: except Trott, Prior and Swann. If there is one criticism I have for Ponting it's that he doesn't seem to know how to finish teams off when it counts. Cardiff was embarrassing to watch for one reason: Eng's lower order. Firstly they smacked around like Kanga cricket and then occupied the crease til the draw. Border would have ripped shreds off his bowlers if they allowed that to happen!
It is the attitude i find offensive; basically- "shut up everyone, we'll deal with this, and we will deal with it by having a review and sailing on as per usual!"
ReplyDeleteyou are right Lefty (it was not Hilditch/Pontings total loss), but the selectors are telling us the same old excuse- rebuild- trust us- we have a young side. Bullshit! it goes further than that, and it is something that i have had a go at before; the fact that we waited until we needed wholesale rebuilding. The champs are long gone, and they when in three (four if you count Martyn) stages, and with that CA went into the stop-gap mode of just filling the hole.
So i'm po'd at Hilditch and co for their short sightedness more than anything!
Here's an idea, run an academy at Adelaide oval!
...and yes, Broad was terrific
... and one of them was Andrew Hilditch ...
ReplyDeleteYep, fair enough. It is an arrogant attitude and Hilditch seems to think he and all selectors and their process are above criticism. Hence it's easy for people like Chappell and Slater to call for their heads.
ReplyDeleteAus are poor at succession plans and I would have thought they'd learnt their lesson from Lillee/Marsh/Chappell.
The thing that confuses me is how 'they' think this transition phase will produce skills we currently lack - like a spinner. How many arm balls did Hauritz bowl in the Ashes? Can he bowl them?
Is the Aus cricket academy just an opportunity for young blokes to get pissed and pick up chicks? Where are the players?
At least England have tried someone like Bopara or Broad. We gave Hughes bugger all.
With Dean Jones stating that Warne would come back to lead the country for a short term/intermediate captaincy, it shows up Hilditch's hypocrisy:
ReplyDeleteHowever, chairman of selectors Andrew Hilditch has been emphatic in saying the Warne era is over.
"I really think we're getting past the stage of talking about Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath and Adam Gilchrist because that's gone," he said on Monday.
"It was a great era but now we're moving into a new era."
...so it is good enough to bring up their names to remind everyone what big shoes you are expected to fill as a selector, but when touteded as replacements for the chosen few, we are reminded that the champs era was a long time a go.
Hilditch you are a tosser!