Australia has been involved in two of the most exciting test matches of the last decade or more in the space of three test matches and four weeks. This is in no small part due to the continued period of transition being undergone by Australia's test match side. On the one hand we have a defiant reliance on senior batsmen arguably past their best by a selection panel who cannot quite give up the security blanket of some representation of Australia's golden era in their current side. Unfortunately, selecting the most obvious current representative of those halcyon days (Ricky Ponting) is akin to employing a geriatric in a wheelchair on the door of a busy inner-city nightclub as far as security is concerned. On the other hand we have an all encompassing, "any face will do this week but we reserve the right to completely change the roster next week" approach to bowling selections that would make a drunken bar fly on a twelve hour mission to drink his way through a pub’s entire liquor selection look discerning by comparison.
The continued selection of Ricky Ponting, who hasn’t made a test match century in nearly two years and close to thirty innings is a reward for long service which surely only Steve Waugh was afforded in recent times in his cringe-inducing (to non Australian observers) “tour of the provinces” during the home series against India in 2003-04. Brad Haddin is also bafflingly retained after two of the most irresponsible strokes in recent test cricket, in Australia’s second innings capitulations at Newlands, Cape Town and this week at Hobart against New Zealand. Both situations called for a sensible hand from Australia’s experienced wicketkeeper-batsman but both times Haddin played ugly shots, unable to adapt to the match situation and conditions which dictated the need for some caution at least at the beginning of his innings. Haddin is a product of Australia’s dominance of world cricket in the late 1990s and most of the 2000s, but unfortunately he has neither the talent of his predecessor Gilchrist, nor the savvy to realise that the winds of change have come into play and Australia now cannot simply blast their way through test matches. Both Ponting and Haddin are enjoying carte-blanche as far as the demands of the selectors regarding the performances expected to retain their places in the side are concerned. One passenger, even two passengers, can be carried and this has been the case to a certain extent as Australia has drawn both their last two test series. However, this has largely been down to the recent good bowling from the Australians and not the batting with the exception of Michael Clarke’s marvellous 150 in Cape Town. Michael Hussey, for so long Australia’s pillar of reliability has been able to cover for shoddy displays by Ponting and Haddin in the past, but in the last four tests he averages a mere 11.85. Perhaps the stress of batting for two or sometimes three players is catching up with him.
On the other hand we see Australia’s baffling pick’n’mix approach to their bowling selections. In the past two years perhaps half of the bowlers currently involved in Australia’s domestic competition have donned the baggy green - Australia’s great symbol of test cricket and just half a generation ago fiendishly hard for budding state cricketers to lay their hands on - and represented their country in the test arena. Many have then been dropped after two or three tests in the search for the magical elixir that might restore Australia to test dominance. Hilfenhaus, Siddle, Harris, Johnson, McKay, Starc, Cummins, Copeland, Pattinson, Doherty, Hauritz, Beer, Lyon, Bollinger, George - a mind boggling list. There have certainly been encouraging performances of late from James Pattinson, who was the man of the series in his debut series against New Zealand taking back to back five-fors, and from Pat Cummins, who snagged the man of the match on his debut in the marvellous win at the Wanderers, Johannesburg. Cummins needs to be handled with care, given his youth, and is likely to be out of the India series with a stress fracture of the foot, but both he and Pattinson are encouraging prospects. However, it is surely somewhat fortuitous for them both that they delivered immediately; otherwise it seems likely that they would have been thrown onto the scrap heap, joining so many other recent seam bowling selections. Australia’s approach to spin bowling in the post-Warne era requires an article all of its own, but in short Nathan Lyon has also shown promise of late and must be persisted with for at least a dozen tests.
Australia’s Jekyll and Hyde approach to test selections and the quite natural lack of players of comparable ability to the recent retired generation of Warne, McGrath, Langer, Gilchrist, Lee et al has made their recent matches extremely exciting. No longer can Australia be considered immune against sides such as New Zealand as this week’s victory for the latter at Hobart demonstrates. It was the first victory for New Zealand in any test match against Australia since 1993 and the first victory on Australian soil since Jeremy Coney led them to a series victory in 1985-86. The beauty of an Australian downturn in test cricket is that it won’t danger the long term prospect of the longer game there. The Baggy Green is still the ultimate Australian cricketing symbol and, regardless of the insane scheduling of a domestic T20 competition in the heart of an Australian domestic season, the overall drive of Australian cricketing focus will be towards test match cricket. The same is true of England, currently enjoying a period of success in the test arena the likes of which has not been seen since the 1950s. England’s test grounds continued to sell out during their lengthy period in the doldrums. Although Hobart was by no means full for the New Zealand test, it is an Australian cricketing outpost comparable to Chester-Le-Street or Sophia Gardens in England, both of whom also fail to sell out for all but the matches against Australia. Australia being pulled into the pack as far as test cricket goes might spark more of an interest in test cricket in countries like New Zealand, where interest may be piqued by this week's victory. This is to the benefit of test cricket overall - the more countries who prioritise the longer game, or at least start to take it more seriously upon seeing the dominant side of the last twenty years falter, the better.
An unpredictability surrounding Australia’s test match cricket has arisen which is born out by a victory in a test match in the backyard of the number two ranked side in the world, South Africa, followed swiftly by a home defeat to the number eight ranked side, New Zealand. For all Australia’s sporting culture of dominance, and striving to be first in the world, even years and years of the fulfilment of this aim can grow stale for the viewing public. There were signs that the Australian public were tiring of their side’s dominance, largely unchallenged, in the 2007-08 home series against India. This neatly brings us to the next series for the Australians, a repeat of that 2007-08 series, beginning at Melbourne Cricket Ground on Boxing Day. A new generation of bowlers coming through and earning their spurs will bring the Australian public out in great numbers to see the first test of the series and, it is to be hoped (and expected), in many future test matches. A period of rebirth may be painful at first, but it is also an exciting prospect, and will give a new generation of test cricket followers in Australia a sense of ownership and a stake in the fortunes of this new, young side as they follow their travails and fortunes over the coming years. All that is needed now is for the relics of the top order to be given their cards and money and the metaphorical painting of a Spitfire in recognition of years of long service. Then, truly, the new era can begin. However, if in the meantime we are treated to more test matches of the entertainment (if not quite, quality) of the Johannesburg and Hobart tests of the last month, test cricket will surely be the winner.
Nick Rogerson
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