Big problems for Australian selectors

Press, 28 November 1984, Page 72

Big problems for Australian selectors

NZPA-AAP Sydney The Australian cricket 1 selectors could find their predecessors inadvertently painted them into a corner when they relinquished their hold on the Job this year. The former captain, Greg i Chappell, has joined, his i one-time team-mate, Rick' i McCosker, and the selection < chairman, Laurie Sawle, on the reconstituted panel for 1 this summer’s taxing test 1 campaign against the world i champion West Indies team. 1 Kim Hughes’ decision in i Brisbane on Monday to stand down as Australian j skipper has left the game in <

a state of flux as the Australian Cricket Board stares down the barrel of a 5-0 shellacking at the hand of the touring West Indies. The former panel of Sawle, Alan Davidson and Phil Ridings, had the option of bypassing Hughes at the start of 1983-84 when the time came to deliberate the choice of captain. There was a strong push for the wicket-keeper, Rod Marsh, to be handed the job in view of Hughes’ notable lack of success over several campaigns since 1979. It is history Hughes gained the nod, swept to an easy 3-0 win over Pakistan

and Marsh resigned, just months before the disastrous foray to the Caribbean where the Windies inflicted their own version of a 3-0 drubbing. Chappell and McCosker, who were appointed in July, joined Sawle in swimming with the tide and leaving Hughes in the driving seat. But in view of Hughes’ record, which then stood at four wins from 26 tests, it was as much the lack of a logical successor as thoughts of rebuilding under a stable leadership that played a part in their decision.

Hughes’ decision to stand down, announced after an eight-wicket loss in the second test, has brought the long-standing captaincy question back to square one. Queensland’s left-handed batsman, Allan Border, appears the prime candidate as he is the only current member of the test team at present captaining a Sheffield Shield side. But Border’s limited experience at the helm and his poor form in this series must create nagging doubts about his claims to step out of the frying pan into the captaincy fire, at least for the time being.

David Hookes, of South Australia, has long been touted as a potential national skipper but an erratic test record and a poor Caribbean tour (248 runs at 24.88 in five tests) wil weigh against him. A scintillating knock of 151 against Tasmania last week-end brought him back into test calculations. New South Wales’ gritty leader, Dirk Wellham, is another outside chance but he lost out to David Boon for a second test middleorder place despite a typically tenacious 115 in the Sheffield Shield match in Launceston.

The selectors already faced more than their share of problems in coming up with a line-up capable of extending the near unbeatable Windies. Questions bang over the test futures of the opening batsmen, Kepler Wessels and John Dyson, and the medium-pacer, Terry Aiderman, with Wellham, Robbie Kerr, Hookes, Andrew Hilditch and the left-arm spinner, Murray Bennett, pressing for inclusion. The team for the third test in Adelaide is set to be named on Monday with considerably more questions

begging for answers than in the Federal election two days earlier. The selectors find themselves in a similar boat as the previous panel in 197879 when the recalled skipper, Bob Simpson, baled out after an exacting West Indian tour at the head of an inexperienced side, depleted by the raids of World Series Cricket. They appointed the Victorian, Graham Yailop, for the six-test tour by England, ahead of a leading candidate, John Inveracity. The much-travelled Inverarity had not played

international cricket for six years but was rated one of the best captains to lead Western Australia since its promotion to Sheffield Shield cricket. Australia went on to sink, 5-1, in 1978-79 with Yailop unable to stem the tide. He was destined never again to lead his country after dropping out midway through a two-test seriesagainst Pakistan in early 1979 due to injury. This current crop of selectors has neither an active veteran with Inveracity’s captaincy skills nor an obvious candidate like Rod Marsh to fill Hughes’ shoes.