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Beasley Hutton wrote:

Peter North wrote: A lot of news outlets including Cricket.com reporting that Bancroft, Tim Paine and Smarsh are in the eleven, poor old Marshy is gonna cop it on social media.

You should hear the vitriol for S.Marsh on Vic radio today PN it is nothing short of a disgrace really after all SOS is an Australian isnt he?
Interestingly though they believe Maxwell (no mention of the likes of non Vics- Renshaw, Weatherald, Ferguson, Patterson, Freeze's boy Head) should be in his place as he is in better form by SS averages (a measly half a % mind you) and despite Maxwell not having to face the full Australian bowling attack at suburban Hurstville and also no mention of Handscomb's form or lack there of so far this summer....but apparently it is only us West Aussies that are parochial towards our own!!

How pathethic, you would of thought getting behind the team would be the priority it's a team sport after all, plenty of pressure as it is shouldn't have to put up with faarkwits on social media.

Can understand the aggro around Aust for Marsh getting a gig.....for someone in career best form did he make a 100 in any of those 6 Sheffield Shield gigs?....but hey out of all the applicants who did? Up to Marsh to prove folk wrong, though opening for WA and playing 6 for Aust are surely two different roles especially mentally. I guess his new ball experience will help him batting at 6. Handscomb appears to be struggling though, wonder if he goes to 6 and Marsh comes in at 5?

Pleased with Paines selection, wished Nevill had scored some runs, but TBH batting 7 for NSW don't think one will get much of a bat I guess....especially with Starc et al running through the opposition for mediocre scores. Paine looks more competent with the bat than Nevill at the international level, though if Bancroft keeps working on his keeping, who knows he may get more exposure at the international level in the 50 over format....

Shane Warne is a person I generally take no notice of since he retired but when he talks about cricket I listen to him because he has a very shrewd feel for the game as he demonstrated during countless international matches and he knows what he is talking about on this topic. His view is that Australia are confused and their selection policy is all over the place. He feels that England have a great opportunity to take the initiative in the first test as they appear more settled. I must admit the preliminaries to this series remind me a lot of the 2010-11 series which England won 3-1. Hopefully this is where the similarities end.

One can see Gregory Stephan Chappel in this selection, particularly in relation to the picking of Paine as the best keeper; Chappell, after all, was the man whom picked IanHealy from realtive obscurity after the inury to Anderson standding up to IT Botham in the Shield.

Good to see decent 100's from youngsters in Sangha and Short today v a nearly Eng test attack.....bodes well hopefully for the senior lot next week......interesting to see untried leggie in Fallins did well with his bowling, snaring a few wickets....if only Warnie was 15 years younger eh?

This article sums up my opinion about Cricket Australia's bastardisation of the Sheffield Shield competition and its gradual decline into a youth academy. This has manifested itself with the discarding of seasoned performing veterans such as Ed Cowan, Michael Klinger and Cameron White in favour of "promising youngsters" . What this policy is not taking into account is what these experienced players could teach the youngsters in the same way that Allan Border did when he played a few years for Queensland after his test retirement. This ageist CA policy is not applied consistently though when you consider that 34 year old Sean Marsh has just been given yet another opportunity in the test team.
This complete downgrading of a traditional old competition will come back to bite the national game on the bum eventually, just like the AFL's complete disdain for the 2nd tier footy competitions in the country.
Worth a read if you get a moment
www.perthnow.com.au/sport/cricket/commen...4b7dc9534daabfe01e4e