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It's Tough Being Me: The Shane Watson story

honestbharani

Whatever it takes!!!
All this talk of building the system and micromanaging the team is built on the flawed idea that following great process (keeping track of injuries, rotating players, formulating detailed strategies) is going to lead to a great team.

Sure, a very good domestic structure with qualified support staff, proper management of players is going to make available a large pool of decent players who have been well coached to realize their potential. But somehow to think that this would lead to unearthing of ATG players or make existing above players into legends doesnt make any sense. Players like Warne, Murali, Sachin, Ponting, Akram, Marshall and others are diamonds in the rough, the probability of finding them in the muddy pitches of India is just as high as in shield/county cricket - miniscule.

That is not to say that good process doesnt yield good results. Of course it does, as evidenced by the rise of England in the past few years. But beyond a certain point, it follows the law of diminishing returns and goes to a point where it becomes more of a bureaucracy and players are expected to double up as pencil pushers documenting mundane details in the hope that it leads to some miraculous future breakthrough in the team.

There are 18-20 odd players in the squad, the coach should be talking directly to each of them trying to find about their fitness issues. If CA wants spotless documentation on player fitness (which is a very good initiative btw), they should hire support staff to do the job.
And not to mention, to do all of that for a larger pool would mean the necessity of documentation, like maybe at the domestic level if the fitness management group were more centralized. But surely, with as large a support staff as national teams carry these days, it is not difficult for these guys to juz ask those questions and fill the boxes themselves...
 

Crazy Sam

International 12th Man
At the end of the day Watson has been underperforming in tests and is not even bowling to make up for his poor batting, so I'm not real sure we are losing much there and I certainly don't think his (and his father's) dramatic comments about 'weighing up his future' are worth the attention they are getting.
 

outbreak

First Class Debutant
Are we going to get a Allen Iverson press conference from Watson? "we're talkin' about wellness reports man"
 

howardj

International Coach
Reflecting on this...as much as I vigorously disagree with the suspension (good management would have nipped the serial minor infractions in the bud rather than letting them slide to the point of having to suspend players from a series-deciding Test), it was piss poor of Watson to wing off home the day the suspension was meted out. Just the optics of it were appalling. Strongly recommend to him that, now that the bub has been born, he return to India and bed things down before the final Test. Otherwise his flying home is his final act before the contracts are handed out in April, and the Ashes squad is announced. Not a great last impression to leave.
 

Spikey

Request Your Custom Title Now!
Flying home was fine. The comments he made to the media ("'I've been suspended because I didn't do my homework") were not
 

burr

State Vice-Captain
I just *had* to post this. Remember when Watson got scared of ghosts and spent the night in Lee's room? Gough trolled him the next day


Hilarious cricket trolling, Shane Watson trolled by Darren Gough - YouTube
Haha, I remember that. Watson has been a humourless **** for so long.

Seriously though, why wouldn't/couldn't the Australian VC complete an exercise on how to improve his and his team's performance. He clearly needs to do a bit of research, reflection and analysis considering his performance has been poor for so long. Oh, but I forgot, he's not batting in his favourite position. Never mind that someone like Langer got dropped from first drop, saw a chance as opener and made it his own. Why is this guy even VC. He needs to be stripped of that position immediately. He is clearly not a serious captaincy contender and doesn't gel with Clarke so it makes no sense.
 

howardj

International Coach
he's the same age too, so it's not as though he is the successor to be groomed

maybe, on reflection, should have gone with Hussey or Haddin
 

howardj

International Coach
Flying home was fine. The comments he made to the media ("'I've been suspended because I didn't do my homework") were not
i actually went the other way, and found his comments reasonable (particularly his Pat Howard reposte), but his departure as though he was picking up his bat and ball immediately and going home.
 

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