THE UNCABLE GUY

You're taking the piss, right, Merv?

Hughes not seeing overseas matches

AUSTRALIAN selector Merv Hughes is adamant he sees enough cricket to do his job without having pay television connected at home.

Confirmation that one of the selectors cannot watch overseas tours or domestic limited-overs games from home because they are not screened on free-to-air television follows strong criticism of the national selection panel and especially its time-pressed chairman, Andrew Hilditch, who is a partner in an Adelaide law firm.

Yes, he is taking the piss:

Whether you sit at home and watch them, or whether you're around at a mate's place watching them or down at the pub, to me there is no substitute for actually being there live and that is why there is an Australian selector on duty at every international game, and that is why we try and cover most of the state games that are played."

Isn't he?

Comments

[RT]

Always thought Merv a strange choice as selector but when he was selected it led me to think maybe there is more to him than the clown prince he portrayed during his playing daze. I don't know why I even bothered to pondered it.

His TV commentating during the Ashes duly exemplified the fact he's more suited as a selector for the Footscray district cricket side. And then just to drink the beer, make fart jokes and keep the district lads happy with stories of AB, Greg Ritchie, Deano and co.

NSW, while still doing very nicely with selection decisions in all international forms of Oz cricket, are craving a selector on the board. Exit Merv, enter Geoff Lawson.

[Tony]

Merv's bizarre decision to reject cable - free cable, at that; name me a person who reads this blog who wouldn't drool at the prospect - and the blasé way in which he responds is tailor-made to make the cricket-watching public scream "If that's the way you treat the job, stick to being a tour guide then, ya big goose!"

It's the same kind of disconnect between cricket hierarchy and cricket public that had Hilditch referring to the Ashes loss as a hiccup.

[RT]

In fully reading the article the last sentence is a corker: "CA is moving towards appointing a full-time talent pathway manager to work alongside the selectors and liaise with the states."

Full-time talent pathway manager? Just another layer of bureaucratic, non-accountable tasking. Cue more double talk from Hiccup Hilditch and co.

[Tony]

Next: CA appoint a facilitator to enable the full-time talent pathway manager to best liaise with the selectors and the states.

[RT]

And still no Ashes blood on the streets. 1st Test vs the Worst Indies in a month is looking like the Oval Test batting lineup all who will have an ravenous appetite on boosting their averages. The bowling also possibly staying but Ritz perhaps for Clark, with the best fast alternative being creaky old Lee, who could talk his way back in, "bowling 150km plus". Haddin perhaps the only at risk with Mucaulay Paine doing so well. But they'll stick with Klutzy. Hardly generational forward thinking. Neilson, Hiccup, Hiccup's cronies, Cooley all solid as concrete. You'd need 100 tonnes of gelignite to blast them out of their bunker.

The solution of the Ashes debrief? A full-time talent pathway manager.

[Bruce]

I think they are victims of the grind. There have always been discussions about County players being worn down and thinking that there is always tomorrow to make some runs. Chance after chance after chance that they don't know how to step up when it really matters and make the most of this match today.

With so many series and always looking ahead, moving on to the next series, tne next match, always putting the last game behind them as quickly as possible...

Perhaps sabremetrics are infiltrating and there is a view that a single ashes series isn't enough to make a statistically valid decision as long as we put a team on the park that is more likely to win then that is good enough.

Hang on a sec boys - YOU JUST LOST THE ASHES! This is a very big deal. 'Things' must be done so that we don't lose the ashes again next time. You only get a couple of chances to win the ashes every couple of years. There is no long term statistical trend that says who should hold the ashes - you either hold them or you don't. And right now WE DON'T!. It clearly doesn't hurt enough at the top.

[Russ]

Good points Bruce. I've said it elsewhere, but I'll repeat it. It isn't cricket fatigue that is killing the game, it is trophy fatigue. Most sports play 6-9 months a year, week-in, week-out. The fans love it, they support the local club. But look at how many trophies has Clarke could have contested this year?

T20/ODI/Test v RSA @ home and away, Ranger Cup/Big Bash/Shield domestic, T20 World Cup, T20/ODI/Ashes v England, Champions Trophy, Champions League, ODI v India, Test v WI. 17 bits of silverware! Not including the IPL which he didn't sign on for. And no f'n wonder. Nor the other 11 trophies he'll be eligible to play for before the end of March.

Footy players spend all year preparing for the premiership, national soccer teams four years preparing for the world cup, even tennis's relentless grind is punctuated by marquee events that everyone has to sign on for. You can't expect a player to rouse himself once a fortnight for some new trophy without dulling their edge for the contest that matters.

And frankly, how many of these contests actually matter? International cricket tours have always been about making money. The idea that you should structure the entire sport around a relentless succession of these games is completely daft. Imagine, for instance, that rugby union players were pulled from their super 12 teams for the entire season to play in internationals against a mix of very good and make-weight teams that are then gifted all the television, newspaper, internet and radio coverage? No-one would give a shit about either set of contests and the game would die in the arse. Welcome to cricket as it is now, but wait, there is a solution to having to play uneconomic games against rubbish teams: exclude them, so we can watch the same four sides battle it out, week in, week out. You reckon the players don't take the Ashes seriously now Bruce, you wait till we start playing them every friggin year.

[Big Ramifications]

"CA is moving towards appointing a full-time talent pathway manager to work alongside the selectors and liaise with the states."

With much fanfare in WA, the Fremantle Dockers recruited the Midas-like ex-Hockeyroos coach, Ric Charlesworth, as "excellence performance consultant."

I didn't read much about it when he got the arse.

/I assume his contract ain't no more.
//Ha ha! Would love to have been a fly on the wall during some of his excellence sessions.

[Bill & Ted]

EXCELLENT!

http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/music/billandted460.jpg

[Tony]

That only works with the air-guitar and riff sound-effect.