***Official*** Australia in South Africa

[howardj]

My spies have lead me to believe that this will be a 14 man squad as follows:

Ponting
Clarke
Hughes
Katich
Hussey
Jaques
Klinger
MacDonald
Haddin
McGain
MacGoffin
Siddle (if not fit, Bollinger)
Bracken
Johnson

[Prince EWS]

Originally Posted by howardj

My spies

Your spies should be shot judging by the amount of times they've given you false info though, it must be said.

[dontcloseyoureyes]

If by "spies" you mean "I'm guessing and will be wrong" then yep.

[howardj]

Sorry for having a sense of humour - will hop back into my box and go into serious mode.

Pretty good squad though.

Will leak more information as it comes to hand.

[vic_orthdox]

Magoffin and Klinger skipping the queue? Hmm.

[howardj]

Goffers is a cert.

[social]

So Klinger scores a mountain of runs on the world's flattest road to get in contention?

Selectors must have missed his average of 26 last year and 36 overall

Seems like the days of actually having to perfromed for a couple of years are long gone

[social]

Originally Posted by howardj

Goffers is a cert.

If he is picked ahead of Bollinger then that is another absolute joke

At this rate, the selectors will have enough material to headline at the Edinburgh Comedy Festival

[aussie]

Originally Posted by dontcloseyoureyes

There's no way he won't be picked now. Was respectable in Sydney, and since Symonds has failed horribly in state cricket and McDonald took 6-fa in the recent Shield match.

He was respectable. But he is clearly out of his depth in the Australian side & the selection of him as a potential all-rounder @ 6 is straight crap.

Him taking 6 wickets againts that weak South Aus looking batting-lineup, is more of an indication of how average they where rather than a solid signs of how he could be an effective bowler in SA.

[aussie]

Originally Posted by vic_orthdox

Both rarely get their feet outside the line of the stumps, leave themselves room to free the arms and flay through the off. Hence they drive very well square of the wicket, but as a result hang their bat outside the line of their body and eyes. Martyn was similar, but he always had his eyes in line with the ball; these two do not.

I am a big fan of Hodge, and think that he should have played more cricket for Australia. However, I think that his chance has passed, and that we aren't to gain anything by playing him. We need to get the next generation of batsmen ready whilst we have the settled leadership of Ponting, Hussey and Clarke for them to bat around.

This current notion for the injection of youth for this crucial tour & the ashes worries me.

Although i will accept that Hughes is 100% likely to be picked. As i've mentioned before if Steyn & co expose him. He will quickly regress from prodigy to selectorial mistake.

For these tours regardless of players ages, Australia need to pick their best XI. Injection of youth could start next home summer.

[Precambrian]

Originally Posted by howardj

My spies have lead me to believe that this will be a 14 man squad as follows:

Ponting
Clarke
Hughes
Katich
Hussey
Jaques
Klinger
MacDonald
Haddin
McGain
MacGoffin
Siddle (if not fit, Bollinger)
Bracken
Johnson

Weakest touring Aussie side since early 90s?

[Hoggy31]

Nah

[pup11]

Originally Posted by social

What's Haddin's penalty?

Execution by firing squad would seem to be the most appropriate

I find it really amusing that those people who agree with this decision are also saying "oh ****, we've got no-one to replace him with!"

Yeah of course Symonds as a cricketer is awesome, and when he is playing with all his focus then he is very hard to replace, but obviously that isn't the case and therefore choosing a pure batsman instead of him would be the right choice.

[Nnanden]

If howardj's side is correct, I will literally cry tears of joy.

[Uppercut]

I would absolutely love it if they pick Bracken. Someone wrote into Tony Greig on cricinfo this week to ask, "Nathan Bracken has been the stand-out bowler for Australia's ODI side for a long time now. Why is it that he never comes into consideration for the test side?" Greig replied, to paraphrase slightly, "I haven't a ****ing clue."