Aust. cricketers ‘disgrace to their country'

Press, 27 August 1980, Page 38

Aust. cricketers ‘disgrace to their country '

NZPA London The chairman of the Australian selectors, Mr Phil Ridings, has told the Australian cricketers that they are a disgrace to their country and a disgrace to the 80 former players who have gone to London to watch the Centenary Test. Mr Ridings and the captain, Greg Chappell, called a special two-hour team meeting during the match in which the tourists were beaten by an innings and 76 runs by Nottinghamshire — the most humiliating defeat by an English county this century. Chappell stepped out of his usual passive role in which he leads by example rather than bullying and gave the entire side a stern warning of their responsibilities and demanded that they smarten up their attitude. Chappell singled out players for his dressing down, and once he had said his piece Mr Ridings stepped in with a caution that the futures of some of them as Australian players were in serious jeopardy. Chappell has been deeply hurt by the dismal showing his team put up at Trent Bridge. His dearest wish is to lead Australia to victory in the two Centenary Test matches, and he must have been sick at heart as he stood in the pavilion and watched Nottinghamshire make a laughing stock out of the Australian team.

They were bowled out on the first day for 207 on an ideal batting wicket, and then allowed the county batsmen to score 465 runs against an attack boasting the test spearhead of Dennis Lillee, Jeff Thomson and Len Pascoe.

Lillee was the only Australian bowler to gain some credit. He took six for 133, but tarnished his

performance by dropping three catches, admittedly fielding out of position in the slips.

A total of 14 catches went down in the Nottinghamshire innings, something which cricketers in England would never have dreamed possible from an Australian team. Then on the final day the Australians collapsed even more meekly for 182 when there was nothing wrong with the wicket. The Notts captain, Clive Rice, could hardly believe it.

“It reminded me of the 1967 and the 1969-70 series in South Africa when the Springboks gave Australia a hiding,” he said.

“They’ve got to pick their game up and stick to the basics of bowling line and length, and fielding. “They had an ideal opportunity to get some batting practice before the test. They could have batted all day and made something out of the match,” said Rice. “It’s no good if they go into a test match thinking they only have to bat for one day.” Rice was proud of his team’s performance in inflicting the heaviest defeat by a county on an Australian touring side since 1888, when the same county beat P. S. McDonnell’s team by an innings and 199 runs.

The England side captained by W. G. Grace went on to win that test series, 2-1, and there aren’t too many people in England today who give Australia much chance at Lords tomorrow.

Chappell said that if the team continued to field so badly “we won’t be winning too many test matches.”

But he added: “I don’t take a lot of stock of lead-up games. You do a lot of things you wouldn’t do in a test.”