Shooting the wrong man
Posted by karram on September 21, 2005
The Aussie selectors have done it again.
One of the reasons for Aussies rising to the top in cricket has been their tough selection policy. It does not matter if you are Mark Waugh, if you are not scoring runs, out you go. It does not matter if you are Steve Waugh, if your team does not make it to the finals, out you go. This time, after the first Ashes loss in 16 years, they have made some tough decisions. Like dropping Hayden from the one-day side (totally justified) and dropping Martyn from the test side (as ridiculous as it can get).
Martyn’s batting has definitely seen better days. And those brainless run-outs he played a part in definitely did not help. But drop him from the team ? Thats crazy. While looking at his series returns, one *must* look at the contributions made by those “blind as a bat” and “deaf as an adder” umpires Bucknor and Aleem Dar.
It has been well documented elsewhere how Martyn has carried the Aussie batting line-up in the past series’. And his knocks, under tough conditions in India will remain in memory for a long long time. Here was a laddie brought up on hard bouncy pitches in Perth taking on a couple of good spinners in their own backyard, and coming out on top. He did well in Sri Lanka, and did well in India. Without him, the results of these two series’ might have been different.
Given his age, and given the track record of the Australian selectors, we may never see him again on the field in a test match. Thanks, Marto, for the memories. I enjoyed your knocks in Chennai and in Nagpur.
