zaremba
Cricketer Of The Year
I have some sympathy with this. The selection of Giles for the 1st Test was perfectly logical even though the media didn't like it at all. The fact is that with Monty in the team we would have had a horribly long tail with Hoggard batting 3 places too high at number 8. Giles offered so much more in the field and with the bat that there was sense in playing him, especially given that either of the spinners was likely only to be playing a supporting role to the seamers.It certainly helps, the supposedly rough treatment he got by being preferred to Giles in the last Ashes series started off his cult status - Giles who was of course on the wrong side of the media so was being ripped to pieces week in week out. We saw the wave of ridiculous preferential treatment by the media for Panesar build up then and it hasn't relented. All the ridiculous statements made after England botched the 2nd Test, about how Monty would have made the difference and won the game single handed. Can you imagine the reaction the moronic media would give if their hero was dropped? And the following outcry by know-nothing journalists if England didn't actually win without him, saying how a non-factor finger spinner would have vanquished England's foes spouting a load of further crap about how critical his variety to the attack is. That's one of the big problems with team sport in this country, unless you get strong characters calling the shots then the media influence things.
Also as I recall (though may be wrong about this) Monty hadn't performed in the warm-up matches.
However the media reaction was given some impetus later in the tour by the fact that on his return at Perth Monty took 8 good Australian wickets.