Australia have be knocked out of the Twenty20 World Championship. It is tempting to blame the pool of death for their demise as they would have most likely qualified for the Super Eights stage if they were in any of the three other groups.
But they were grouped with Sri Lanka and West Indies and were found wanting in all departments.
The main reason for this is inexperience.
Most of Australia's elite cricketers play very little Twenty20 cricket at either domestic or international level. Of the 12 players who featured in the pool games over the past three days, only David Warner, Brett Lee and David Hussey played in the recent Premier League and only Warner, Hussey, James Hopes and Nathan Bracken featured in the Australian domestic competition.
It would be harsh to call Australia clueless at this form of cricket but they are clearly one of the most inexperienced teams going around.
Perhaps Australia should follow reigning champion India's formula for success. Admittedly it was more by accident than design that India adopted a youth policy before the last World Championships, but it has worked a treat and if Australia are to succeed at this format, they will need to pick a team that will play more than a handful of Twenty20 games a year.
India have picked 23 players in the their history of Twenty20 internationals - Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble and Sourav Ganguly have played just one between them. Australia, on the other hand, have used 39 players since 2005.
--
format, is a sure sign of inexperience!
8 comments:
LOL, Homer.
And its the "Recent Premier League", not the IPL. If I ever catch you saying IPL instead of RPL again...
Indeed Raj.. I shall strive to remember :)
Cheers,
I hope CA ruin a few more careers like they did Symonds, Nannes and maybe Hodge. IPL (I mean RPL) can do with the full time availability of the Husseys, Warner etc.
I'm not that keen on the suggestions you see in some places that the IPL/rPL is the be all and end all of T20 experience, but I think it can be fairly said that it would have helped some of the Aussies to have had a bit more experience being serious about T20.
Adverbin,
CA wasnt too keen on their players participating in the first IPL too. And do you recall the hue and cry raised after Hayden suffered his Achilles injury?
Australia could have benefited from their players participating in the IPL. They chose not to.
Their loss.
Cheers,
Jonathan, IPL is currently the best platform for T20 experience. That is all we are saying. It is quid-pro-quo. More foreign players choose IPL, they benefit. IPL benefits.
If there is financial equilibirium, then APL, SPL etc might flourish. Until then...
Jonathan,
Be all and end all - no. But it is currently the premier T20 tournament whose USP is that it pits the best against the best.
Cheers,
Raj, 'financial equilibrium' is pie in the sky put out to play down the impact of the IPL. In the meantime, I'm not disputing the value of IPL experience, but I think Chris Gayle, for example, was experienced enough even before it.
Homer, I was simply acknowledging your implication that Aus have had plenty of opportunities for experience in T20 internationals. My point was that hardly any of them were taken seriously. The writer's point was even stronger - Aus haven't even fielded consistent teams in that format.
Post a Comment