Hilly Headed For The Ditch

"I think we've done a very good job as a selection panel, but the reality is we were totally outplayed," Hilditch said after Australia lost the fifth and final Test by an innings and 83 runs last Friday.

So says the man who has guided Australian Cricket as Chairman of the Selection Panel since 2006. When he ascended to the cricket's equivalent of silk, Australia was the number one Test playing nation after dominating world cricket for 14 years. Now, less than five years later, we are number five with something like a bullet - a lead weight - dragging us further south on the list. With our next three series against sides above us on the ICC rankings, the country should be embracing the opportunity presented to climb again but opinion polls, talk back, comments running hot and strong in newspapers and senior, well respected former cricketers don't see it that way.

The recent summer and a humiliating loss to the Poms has bought pressure to bear on Hilditch in particular and this may be considered unfair - after all, there are four men on the panel - but the man just keeps opening his mouth and arrogance dribbles out in coherent but unbelievable statements. Take the opening paragraph of this article for instance, uttered the day after Australia had been thrashed by an innings for a third time in the five Test series against England. He had the hide to say a few days later "I am disappointed those comments were taken that way." Andrew, how else could we take them?

Clearly, our players were not up to the stiff task England set them. Just as clearly, they were always going to struggle following a twelve month preparation which started with easy wins against West Indies and Pakistan last summer where the results flattered the Australians despite clear signs that the batting, in particular, was faltering. The only dominant performance came in New Zealand in late summer but by the time Australia got to England to play two Tests against Pakistan, there were serious deficiencies in the batting lineup, with star players such as Ponting, Clarke and Hussey looking out of form and batting collapses continued. Australia went to India and despite being robbed of a victory in the first Test by poor umpiring in a place where DRS was not agreed to, the Australians were outplayed for most of the sessions of the two Tests

Enter England whose preparation had been perfect and clever as opposed to Australia's haphazard and hard to understand. Three weeks before the First Test, Hauritz was described by Hilditch as Australia's best spinner. So good was the NSW first choice for Australia that two weeks later he couldn't even make an expanded 17 man squad that was named ten days before Brisbane. Everyone with half an idea about the game smelled a rat, whilst England just smelled fear, a nasty offering to rampant lions.

For the remainder of the series Nero fiddled left handed with unknowns - so unknown in fact that Emperor Hilditch didn't even know where they came from ... Perth or was that Melbourne? The forgotten one, Hauritz, did what he should, taking wickets and scoring his first couple of centuries at first class level but there would be no falls by Hilditch's pride. That may have to wait until after the World Cup.

Despite public outcry typified by a poll being run on the Sydney Morning Herald website where 96% of more than seven thousand respondents have called for the Adelaide solicitor to return to his practice and leave Australian cricket alone, he remains solid in his rejection of such ideas as failure or departure. "It'll be for someone else to tell me when I'm not required." For God's sake Andrew, we're telling you but you're not listening!

Former Chair of the selection panel, Trevor Hohns has offered to come back and do the job and unlike Hilditch, his credentials on the job are splendid. It was Hohns who fast-tracked a certain blond, fat kid with a penchant for mobile phones and flippers and he also bought a gangly kid from Narromine into the side and they both did reasonably well in their Test careers. Now those selections could be luck and perhaps cricketers of Warne or McGrath's ilk don't come along very often and maybe, Hilditch just doesn't have the cattle. If that's the case, then why invest money and your mouth into players and drop them in the way Hauritz and now Haddin have been?

Another former selector, John Benaud has expressed concern at the turn over of players and the make up of the panel, which currently has three opening batsmen and then Greg Chappell. Chappell's pedigree as a cricketer would be more than enough credibility to do the job but his subsequent coaching and talent identification roles mean he is a certainty to continue. Besides he's done the selection job before with great distinction.

"It's ridiculous to have three opening batsmen as the core of your selection panel with the same personalities. Selection panels should be like a cricket team, you need some variety in there. 38 players is an incredibly high turnover in such a short time. There are obviously reasons, sometimes there's form and injury reasons, so not every selection can be seen as a gamble. But that pretty much tells you the selectors have been grasping at straws. You get the feeling there hasn't been a solid plan in place." John Benaud

The following 38 players have been used in the Australian Test team since the retirement of Glenn McGrath, Shane Warne and Justin Langer in January 2007, about twelve months after De Fuhrer Hilditch took command: Doug Bollinger 12, Beau Casson 1, Stuart Clark 15, Michael Clarke 42, Xavier Doherty 2, Peter George 1, Adam Gilchrist 6, Brad Haddin 32, Ryan Harris 5, Nathan Hauritz 16, Matthew Hayden 14, Ben Hilfenhaus 17, Brad Hodge 1, Brad Hogg 3, Phil Hughes 10, Michael Hussey 43, Phil Jaques 9, Mitchell Johnson 41, Simon Katich 33, Jason Krejza 2, Brett Lee 17, Andrew McDonald 4, Bryce McGain 1, Stuart MacGill 4, Clint McKay 1, Graham Manou 1, Marcus North 21, Tim Paine 4, Ricky Ponting 42, Chris Rogers 1, Peter Siddle 22, Steve Smith 4, Andrew Symonds 13, Shaun Tait 1, Shane Watson 24, Cameron White 4, Micheal Beer 1 & Usman Khawaja 1.

The recent summer and our poor showing are concern enough but question marks over selections go back at least as far England 2009, when the nation's cricket lovers couldn't understand how our best swing bowler, Stuart Clark, was left out of the team for much of the series lost to England in conditions where England's swing bowlers ran rampant against a batting line up which continues to be nibble and depart men against the swinging ball. Apparently fire wasn't required to fight fire. Looking through the list of players above, its not hard to remember the crazy decision making which disregarded Brad Hodge from Test cricket soon after a double century and then excluded him from the short forms of the game in which he is among the best two or three batsmen in the world. McGain, Casson, Tait, McDonald, Krejza, Beer and Doherty all have hard luck stories about their treatment by the selectors and much of what Stuart MacGill has said in retirement indicates that shoddy treatment was behind a retirement that was at least four years premature.

Let me add to the portrait of an arrogant man without in anyway attempting to drop his name but as a junior cricketer in the Sutherland Shire, I played against Andrew Hilditch. Even as junior he was above the rest of us and often proved it with copious runs on a Saturday morning before playing grade cricket for Sutherland in the afternoons, always mixed with an air of superiority. He was fixated on his batting and lengthy stays at the crease and would train with his junior club twice a week, Sutherland twice a week and then go to Caringbah Oval on the other afternoons often paying anybody to bowl to him for an hour or so. Dedication I guess you might call it but he was aloof too. One Saturday morning in U/16's he ground out a century and when a congratulatory handshake was offered by our skipper, he just remarked his guard.

Perhaps his personality was further shaped when a rare act of approach and friendliness cost him a Test innings when his only crime was to pick up a ball left unattended by a fieldsman and throw it to the bowler, Safraz Narwaz. Thereafter, he only gifted his innings when hooking.

His request to be told it's time to go may only be as far away as the end of the World Cup, because it is then that his tenure in the role expires. Justin Langer and Troy Cooley are on a similar time frame but if you are taking odds and becoming a Bet Fair Australian, place your hard earned on Hilditch going back to wigs and black gowns. Perhaps James Sutherland has already marked his card ... "Everyone in Australian cricket is accountable. If that means tough decisions need to be made, then tough decisions will be made. But they need to be made in the cold hard light of day and not in the heat of the moment straight after a disappointing result." Asked directly about Hilditch and Nielsen, Sutherland replied: "We're all under the microscope. We're all bitterly disappointed in the performances of players, coaches and selectors. We share Australian cricket fans' disappointment with that and we need to be subject to an extensive review and, like I said, if difficult decisions need to be made, they will be."

Too many mistakes for too long and whilst it would be unfair to say this summer is all his fault, when faced with opportunities to save situations, Hilditch and his panel made them worse. In order to be thorough, Jamie Cox and David Boon can take their leave as well. Even Ken Schofield, the Chairman of the Review of English cricket four years ago which raped and pillaged us from November on, has formed the opinion that Australia's first act of recovery must be the taking of a sword to the selection panel and since none are honourable enough to fall on their own puny daggers, by all means let's all of Australia get behind them and push.

We owe it to the next generation of Test players.