The fallout

[DaRick]

Originally Posted by pasag

Will heads roll?

Almost certainly. Who gets the axe is another question entirely.

Will Ponting resign the captaincy?

Doubt it.

Will Hussey decide to go out on a high?

Depends if the selectors decide to disregard his century and drop him for 9 months worth of utterly contempible performances. If so, then technically yes. But we'll see.

How safe is Watson in the side if he's not going to bowl?

As opener? Probably only for a few Tests, but aside from Ferguson and Hodge, are there any serious middle-order contenders?

Will the selectors fall on their swords?

Highly doubtful. They've made some pretty iffy calls, though.

Will Clark and Lee ever play for Aus again?

Clark might on green-tops; Lee might where injury is concerned, even though his time has probably come and gone. We have a young, promising bowling trio now.

Will be an interesting few months in Australia, the media hasn't been paying any attention to this series, so there won't be a lot of external pressure.[/QUOTE]

[Midwinter]

Crioket is a professional sport nowdays so no one is going to retire unless they know they are going to get the axe.

If it was otherwise Ponting should at least give up the captaincy, if not retire. He no longer has the consistency of just a couple of years ago and he is 34 years old.
Hussey should retire it was the way he got out that is sending out the warning signals and his age is against him.
The problem last summer and this series was the lack of consistent runs in the middle order.

North has been inconsistent, its all or nothing and fails when he is needed most.

Of the bowlers, Siddle is the long term hope to lead the attack but geez he bowled some poor spells in this series.But unless Johnson finds his swing again it could be over for him.

[age_master]

Originally Posted by Midwinter

Of the bowlers, Siddle is the long term hope to lead the attack but geez he bowled some poor spells in this series.B

Siddle is not an attack leading bowler. At best he is a 3rd seamer.

[pasag]

The timing of North's runs shouldn't be questioned so early in his career IMO - look at Clarke who was in a similar situation till recently where his runs seemed to only come from easy situations. With more experience, players start to deliver in clutch situations. If this is still happening in a year, let's talk. But it's only the bloke's second series.

[Son Of Coco]

Originally Posted by Midwinter

Crioket is a professional sport nowdays so no one is going to retire unless they know they are going to get the axe.

If it was otherwise Ponting should at least give up the captaincy, if not retire. He no longer has the consistency of just a couple of years ago and he is 34 years old.
Hussey should retire it was the way he got out that is sending out the warning signals and his age is against him.
The problem last summer and this series was the lack of consistent runs in the middle order.

North has been inconsistent, its all or nothing and fails when he is needed most.

Of the bowlers, Siddle is the long term hope to lead the attack but geez he bowled some poor spells in this series.But unless Johnson finds his swing again it could be over for him.

Don't agree that North fails when needed most. He stuck around with Clarke to salvage a draw out of the 3rd Test and scored 100 to get us well in front in the 4th test.

And I don't think Ponting should give up the captaincy just yet either. There are a lot of young guys in the team and I don't think Clarke is ready to take over just yet.

[zaremba]

Originally Posted by Son Of Coco

Don't agree that North fails when needed most. He stuck around with Clarke to salvage a draw out of the 3rd Test and scored 100 to get us well in front in the 4th test.

Yeah I agree - he's guilty of either scoring loads or scoring nothing, but his runs did hurt us in this series.

[tooextracool]

Don't really rate North and I think his high backlift and poor footwork will have him in trouble against decent bowling in test match cricket. He cashed in this series when the bowling was really poor and perhaps he might continue to do the same and have a somewhat successful test career but I would be very surprised if that happens as I just don't rate him.

[tooextracool]

Originally Posted by BoyBrumby

I don't wanna bag the bloke, because one wouldn't be human not to feel for a decent guy in a bad run of form, but he certainly celebrated like he thought his ton was a high:



As I said, it was clearly a monkey off his back being lifted, but they were the celebrations of a relieved batsman rather than a bloke who thinks the job's only half done.

Well tbf to him, his celebration was hardly Pietersen-esque.

[tooextracool]

Originally Posted by age_master

Siddle is not an attack leading bowler. At best he is a 3rd seamer.

Based on what? One series where he took 20 wickets at 30 a piece? Correct me if I'm wrong but didn't he lead the attack against SA both home and away?

If Australia continue to treat Johnson as though he was born with a silver spoon in his mouth, they are going to continue to lag behind the best cricket nations in the world.

A word of advice from a Pom which you don't really have to take but build your attack around Siddle (and Hilfenhaus) and you guys will be firm favorites to win the Ashes next time around. Build an attack around Johnson who is the oldest bowler amongst the 3 and has a dodgy action and it might not end well.

[Top_Cat]

Originally Posted by Midwinter

If it was otherwise Ponting should at least give up the captaincy, if not retire. He no longer has the consistency of just a couple of years ago and he is 34 years old.

There's a pretty vast difference between 'no longer having the consistency of a couple of years ago' vs 'not good enough to be in the side'.

[Mr_Cricket]

Originally Posted by pasag

1)Will heads roll?

2)Will Ponting resign the captaincy?

3)Will Hussey decide to go out on a high?

4)How safe is Watson in the side if he's not going to bowl?

5)Will the selectors fall on their swords?

6)Will Clark and Lee ever play for Aus again?

Will be an interesting few months in Australia, the media hasn't been paying any attention to this series, so there won't be a lot of external pressure.

1) Heads will role backwards because we lost the Ashes

2) Ponting will not resign nor will he be striped of his captaincy. Who else is going to captain Australia because Clarke is not ready IMO to take the captaincy. Clarke needs to keep consternating on his batting.

3) Hussy will stay in the Aussie side. There is no one else at the moment knocking on the selectors door wanting to make a name of him self in the middle order.

4) Watson is a short term fix until Hughes is ready to come back in.

5) Selectors all have to been shown the door because not playing a spinner at the Oval was beyond stupid.

6) Clark is gone for good we have to many pace bowlers at the moment and Ricky has to be pissed because the bowlers are continually being swapped and changed because of crap selectors. Lee will stay

[BoyBrumby]

Originally Posted by zaremba

Yeah I agree - he's guilty of either scoring loads or scoring nothing, but his runs did hurt us in this series.

Indeed. Scored the only Australian ton acheived in a winning cause.

[Jamee999]

If Hussey deserves to play for Australia, he shouldn't be thinking that this is "going out on a high". He lost in the Ashes. That is not a high.

[age_master]

Originally Posted by tooextracool

Based on what? One series where he took 20 wickets at 30 a piece? Correct me if I'm wrong but didn't he lead the attack against SA both home and away?

If Australia continue to treat Johnson as though he was born with a silver spoon in his mouth, they are going to continue to lag behind the best cricket nations in the world.

A word of advice from a Pom which you don't really have to take but build your attack around Siddle (and Hilfenhaus) and you guys will be firm favorites to win the Ashes next time around. Build an attack around Johnson who is the oldest bowler amongst the 3 and has a dodgy action and it might not end well.

Siddle has bowled well in 2 series, both against South Africa. He averaged 44 against India in India, which isn't bad but he did go for 4 an over. He averaged over 30 against England, which again, isn't bad. BUT, he took 3 wickets or more in an innings only 3 times. His 5 wicket haul consisted of Strauss and the last 4 wickets which needs to be done but its hardly the sign of a good bowler that he could only do it once in the series. Take that innings out and he averaged just under 40 for the series. But thats not why he shouldn't be considered at attack leader. He doesn't do enough with the ball for mine, and would need to pick up 10pkh or swing the ball more or move it off the seam.

[redhotchilipepa]

Since Hilditch lives in Adelaide we facilitated the press conference yesterday and we've posted the unedited audio from that presser up on our website SACA - South Australian Cricket Association - Home

Have to say, was one of the most interesting pressers i've been to. We have a full contingent of media outlets in Adelaide with Ch10 hooking up a live feed to Melbourne. It went for a about 20 minutes - longest I've been to - and there were some really interesting questions fired at Hilditch, who to his credit, handled himself very well.