Gideon Haigh could be speaking on behalf of many at the Almanac with this withering assessment of Cricket Australia’s performance this summer, from Cricinfo. His aim proves much more unerring than Australia’s bowlers.
http://www.espncricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/497175.html
I’ll sign Gideon’s petition!
Would it hurt to make Ian Chappell Chairman of the ACB….er CA? He could invoke the spirit of Tiger O’Reilly and excorcise the ghost that has haunted Australian cricket [even before he died] once and for all.
I dont think an AFL style commission is the answer. Check the prices of food at Colonial/Telstra/Etihad and refer who was AFL Head honcho at the time it was “brought on line”.
What we need is to take the decisions away from the “born to rule” public school classes and hand them back to the outer. I have just googled administrators at state level and their is a standout.
He went to school in the West..
He is a Victorian..
He is not Chappelli…
He probably has the capacity to ignore Bobby Simpsons son in law…
He is well versed in the Game..
He barracks for the Dogs….
He is…..
Tony Dodemaide …. The way out of mess we are in!!!!
Chalk,
Having recently read “Golden Boy”, I am not sure that Chappelli is the right man for the job.
Chalkdoggie: talking about the ‘public school classes’ I expect you know the Chappell bros.’ backgrounds.
All 3 of them attended Adelaide’s top private school: St Peters.
Oh yeah, and CA’s James Sutherland is an Old Geelong Grammarian.
Where does it sll end ?? Maybe Dodders is the answer. But then again, what school did he attend in the West ??
Richard,
Dodders may have attended St John’s/Chisholm College Braybrook, but I cannot be 100% certain.
Richard, The Cappells actually went to PAC, the principal rival of St Peters. They have a fully blown four-day match each year using first class hours. Westminster play Pembroke in a similar fixture. Pembroke got flogged despite the valiant efforts of my nephew. They would have been a much better chance had their star player (hyphenated name I can’t rememeber) not been at geelong footy club training. Maybe therein lies an interesting point: he was a last-minute inclusion in the draft despite being tagged (already) as a future test player.
In my 50 years of watching test cricket I have yet to see a selector or administrator win a test match.Sure in a perfect world M Clarke should have been dropped but no one in shield cricket is putting up their hand . The runs there have dried up. World cricket goes in cycles and we had 20 years at the top of the tree but in those days we had genuine superstars like Warne,McGrath and Gilchrist but also at shield level at various times were Hayden,Langer,Hussey,Gilchrist right back to Mark Waugh who had to fight to get in the test side. There were others who kept the pressure on but hardly played any tests like Siddons,Hodge,Lehman and Law.There were many others.There is nothing there now.Our next batch of stars are probably still playing schoolboy cricket,so you can have as many enquiries you like or change the selectors it won’t help one bit.
I think Dods did go to that “illustrious” academy Smokie. He or at the least his younger brother would have played in the Herald Shield winning footy team in about 80 or 81. They beat Assumption in the semi and Mazenod in the GF. Fair team from memory…two MacPhersons, Magic McLean, G Walpole and a few other on the Dogs list.
Other alumni of note Peter Gordon [Dogs prez], Alan Stoneham, Captain Groenewegen, The sheila who married Cliffy Young [Mary somebody], Gigs, a bunch of guys who killed a few at the Salt nightclub 10 years back, and the guy who disappeared 2ith out trace [abducted by aliens according to some] over Bass straight in a light plane – Freddy Valentic {?}.
As for the Chappells schooling I think it proves little. Chappelli was always anti establisment/authority. He was prepared to risk it for the long term good of the game. We need someone similar in thee troubled times. And Dods is good mates with Merv so he will know where the weak spots are!
And there you have it. Haigh has driven a quill right through the heart of the problem. The beginning, middle, and end of the story is that Australian Cricket is going to have to fix its most senior tier of administration. The serious problems didn’t start with the failures of this summer they have been emerging for about 5 years. There is just so much wrong with the way cricket is run in Australia – don’t get me started, I tried writing about it and it is unprintable (and possibly unreadable).
Darky,
George Horlin-Smith.
Supposed to be a beauty.
THANKS, Harmsy.
Of course. The Chappells are Prince A. College old boys. Silly mistake of memory.
On the private (public??) school thing, did you see we Catters drafted Geelong Grammar scholarship boy Billie Smedts with our first pick, number 15 overall.
And the Dees snared another GGS lad, Troy Davis, with pick no. 50 overall. Both boys completed Year 12 down at Corio last November.
Daff and I erroneously thought prior to Xmas Smedts had been a Geelong College scholarship lad.
Dogs got Easton Wood straight from Grammar a few years back. He missed the TAC experience. Looks like they are taking their footy seriously.