TOPIC:

Great to see NSW clean up the Vics (well they declared 5/510) & with their Australian backbone see Warner & Smith skittled (both caught in slips) to be 2/22 (as Richie would say "marvelous")
T Dean 134, P Handscomb 215, C White 75no & Lyon taking 0/141 at state level..

Ironical isn't it that the Sheffield Shield is now touted by Cricket Australia as the saviour to get our players back into form and develop a more competitive test team when in reality the competition has been largely ignored and left to wither over several years in favour of the hit and giggle cricket that dominates our screens in December and January.

mikeh wrote: Ironical isn't it that the Sheffield Shield is now touted by Cricket Australia as the saviour to get our players back into form and develop a more competitive test team when in reality the competition has been largely ignored and left to wither over several years in favour of the hit and giggle cricket that dominates our screens in December and January.

Couldn't agree more mikeh. They are finding out that to play test cricket you need players who can hang tough over five days and the lack of emphasis on this type of cricket along with all the short form games that are played means the right type of cricketer for tests is not being promoted. The shield season should be well underway before we start a test series so players can find form in that form of the game.

Since Katich, how many decent first-class cricketers has Western Australia produced?

ArkRoyal wrote: Since Katich, how many decent first-class cricketers has Western Australia produced?

Actually its a good question AR.
In the decent category I could only name the likes of- M.Hussey, Voges, North, S.Marsh, Rogers, Ronchi maybe 1 or 2 others but that is a pretty poor performance for 20 years and reflects our ordinary Shield record in that time and only M.Hussey you could really call world class.

For most of us who grew up in that 70s/80s/early 90s era of WA cricket where we had a production line of real decent home grown cricketers like Lillee, R.Marsh, McKenzie, Hughes, Alderman, Wood, Laird, Yardley, G.Marsh, Veletta, Zoehrer, Reid, Moody, Angel, Julian, Langer, Martyn, Hogg et al (and then those that were handy back ups like Brayshaw, Inverarity, Massie, Malone, Edwards, Mann, Serjeant, Clark, Wright, Hogan, MacLeay, Matthews) it is hard to watch the demise of our proud history of producing talent and then to see ones with talent leave for other states like Katich, D.Hussey, Rogers, Harris, Stoinis et al whilst we import inferior players from other states at the same time...why has it all gone wrong I wonder???

BH thanks -- I agree 100 per cent with your list. Hussey played before Katich so I reckon we are down to the captain, North, Rogers, S. Marsh; but even this list is misleading as North, and Rogers are not West Australians. It has been bloody shocking; it is reavealling that, our list, has absolutelly no bowllers.

I think, sadly BH, we are going to have to accept the fact that we grew up in a golden age of WA cricket and it may not come again. I still live in hope, Yorkshire, won bugger all for forty years, and have turned around since 2001.

The D Hussey issue annoys me because, to my knowledge, he was not tried at state level.

Beasley Hutton wrote:

ArkRoyal wrote: Since Katich, how many decent first-class cricketers has Western Australia produced?

Actually its a good question AR.
In the decent category I could only name the likes of- M.Hussey, Voges, North, S.Marsh, Rogers, Ronchi maybe 1 or 2 others but that is a pretty poor performance for 20 years and reflects our ordinary Shield record in that time and only M.Hussey you could really call world class.

For most of us who grew up in that 70s/80s/early 90s era of WA cricket where we had a production line of real decent home grown cricketers like Lillee, R.Marsh, McKenzie, Hughes, Alderman, Wood, Laird, Yardley, G.Marsh, Veletta, Zoehrer, Reid, Moody, Angel, Julian, Langer, Martyn, Hogg et al (and then those that were handy back ups like Brayshaw, Inverarity, Massie, Malone, Edwards, Mann, Serjeant, Clark, Wright, Hogan, MacLeay, Matthews) it is hard to watch the demise of our proud history of producing talent and then to see ones with talent leave for other states like Katich, D.Hussey, Rogers, Harris, Stoinis et al whilst we import inferior players from other states at the same time...why has it all gone wrong I wonder???

Some good & great players until Mike Hussey & then the handbrake put on. Seems a pity. Wood was re known for his call "Yes, No, Sorry" but still a good player.. Massie had a huge season in England and faded into the sunset.