INTERNATIONAL CRICKET IN AUSTRALIA 2016-2017

4 countries will visit Australia in the 2016-2017 season
Starting dates and venues of each match

SOUTH AFRICA
TESTS
03/11 WACA
11/11 HOBART
24/11 ADELAIDE

NEW ZEALAND
ODIS
4/12 SCG
6/12 MANUKA
9/12 MCG

PAKISTAN
TESTS
15/12 GABBA
26/12 MCG
03/01 SCG
ODIS
13/1 GABBA
15/1 MCG
19/1 WACA
22/1 SCG
26/1 ADELAIDE

SRI LANKA
20/20
17/2 MCG
19/2 SIMMONDS STADIUM GEELONG
22/2 ADELAIDE

I now start to understand why the Matador games are clustered and finished in October

Graham Hick is the new Australian batting coach
Greg Blewett is back as fielding coach
Will be interesting what kind of pitches are prepared this summer

First International  series will be 3 Tests against South Africa
South Africa have a good recent Test match record against Australia in Australia

No test for Perth, but 2 in Melbourne. That won't please the WACA I would have thought.

Cant believe the first test is 2 weeks away and nobody has played a first class game yet. Most of our bowlers haven't bowled a cherry for months on an Australian pitch.
Way too much focus on playing one day cricket instead of tests.

Not having a go at you UH, but it is a bit like this:

round and round and round we go.

Chambo Off To Work We Go wrote:
No test for Perth, but 2 in Melbourne. That won't please the WACA I would have thought.

Looks like a typo from Scrappy. First test v SA is definitely at the WACA.

Im not surprised I got a couple of venues wrong with so many games this summer
My apologies

Steve Smith was apparently contacted about his availability to play in the Matador Cup final
Whatever happened, happened
Steve Smith and David Warner were not selected to play in the Final against Victoria
A newspaper report has stated that Smith and Warner will be rested ahead of a busy summer of International cricket

Should they have played ?
It is a final

Goes to show how crammed the 2016-2017 International schedule is

Starc & Hazelwood the same in todays final, yet after the match Starc did a full warm up & was going to bowl 8 overs in preparation for Tuesdays Shield match

To show how farcical the schedule has become.
We play a 20-20 D/N against Sri Lanka at Adelaide Oval on 22nd February.
The next day, 23rd February, we start a test series in India at Pune.

If we want to give our cricketers a chance to acclimatise then we are basically playing Australia "A" against Sri Lanka.

Something about geese and golden eggs comes to mind.

well that is a joke & i'll bet they'll still charge top dollar to go, thanks for the heads up, i wont be forking out for that

UncleHuey wrote:To show how farcical the schedule has become.
We play a 20-20 D/N against Sri Lanka at Adelaide Oval on 22nd February.
The next day, 23rd February, we start a test series in India at Pune.

If we want to give our cricketers a chance to acclimatise then we are basically playing Australia "A" against Sri Lanka.

Something about geese and golden eggs comes to mind.

17/2 V SL 20/20 MCG
19/2 V SL 20/20 SIMMONDS
22/2 V SL 20/20 ADELAIDE OVAL
23/2 V IN TEST SUBRATA ROY SAHARA STADIUM GAHUNJE
04/3 V IN TEST M CHINNASWAMY STADIUM BANGALORE
16/3 V IN TEST JHARKHAND STATE CRICKET ASSOCIATION OVAL GROUND RANCHI
25/3 V IN TEST HIMACHAL PRADESH CRICKET ASSOCIATION STADIUM DHARMASALA

No respect, they start the 4th test on Greek Independence Day

Looks like the Test players will not participate at all in the SL 20/20 games
Good for the spectator watching ALL the cricket this summer
Hard to see players being available ALL the time for ALL forms of cricket this summer
Means the public might not get to see the best players on occasions
Hopefully there are no injuries

South Africa up 2-0
This following a 3-0 loss to Sri Lanka
What has gone wrong?

" First thing Cricket Australia should do is ensure every Australian player signs a contract to play 2 seasons of grade cricket after his retirement from International cricket."
By
Australian off spin bolwer
Ashley Rowdy Mallett


Judge that comment as you wish
Rowdy is more or less making the point that Australian cricket needs young players mixing it with older players for the experience of it all

Some of us have posted about the Australia cricket schedule this summer
Do we need to uncram it up and send International players back to playing more domestic cricket ?
Or is Australia in a transitional period and needs to build a better combination of players ?

unless i missed something the lead up for Australia was one dayers in South Africa & before that one dayers in Sri Lanka (yes tests before them), i understand the argument of South Africa pl;ayed in those one dayers but surely a couple of shield games is better than one dayers in a build up for a test series...........also Australia aren't as good as we think we are, our batting is brittle, i reckon we've had numerous batting collapses in the last 2 or 3 years

does anyone have the time to get the fall of wickets of Australia in that time ?

There will be changes for the Third Test

These are not my selections, but what I think the selectors will decide upon

WARNER
RENSHAW
KHAWAJA
SMITH
HANDSCOMB
MADDINSON ?
WADE ?
MENNIE ?
STARC
HAZELWOOD
LYON

WICKETKEEPER
The unfortunate player might be Phil Nevil for Matthew Wade
He might be dropped because the batters are not performing well enough
Matthew Wades batting will be considered superior to Phil Nevils at Test level
Phil Nevil is a better gloveman from what I have seen

BOWLERS
Joe Mennie deserves at least one more chance at least
Otherwise Chad Sayers or Jack Bird might get a gig
Chad and Jackson are arguably marginally better bowlers than Joe, but Joe is the best batter of the three
His batting might save him a spot
Nathan Goat Lyon has some good recent bowling form at Adelaide Oval and must play


BATTING
Callum Ferguson has failed in the 2nd test and also against QL in the SS
I think he should be given at least one more chance , but the selectors may not have the balls to retain him
His spot to either  Nick Maddinson or Travis Head , who both happen to be reasonable change bowlers

One one selection different from my posted anticipated team
Jack Bird in the team instead of Joe Mennie

The non selection of Callum Ferguson and Joe Mennie could be considered as rough decisions
Im of the opinion if you are selected , that players should be entitled to at least 3 matches
That proviso being , unless they are originally selected to cover an injured player

Currently in the 3rd test
SA won the toss and batted, the game is into the night session
7/187

Selection policies are one thing and I don't think that approach has been right for quite a while. But it is not aided by international scheduling that is more driven by dollar concerns than match quality.

I would put the scheduling as culprit #1 in the current woes afflicting our national side.
They just cannot adapt to the different forms of the game nor conditions so quickly. Maybe other countries can, but not Australia.

Secondly, selection policies have not been seen as logical and even maybe equitable. A new approach to this is needed. I would like to see someone like Mark Taylor take the helm. A conflict of interest maybe with his Ch9 role? It doesn't seem to bother Mark Waugh at Ch10.

And lastly, the players. They need to understand the temperament changes needed for the different forms of the game. Is there too much over-thinking happening these days? I reckon a bloke like Ian Chappell would say an emphatic YES.

The article below discusses problem #1.

Ben Horne, The Daily Telegraph
November 28, 2016 6:45pm

DARREN Lehmann has every right to be filthy at the meaningless one-day series against New Zealand that now threatens to interrupt Australia’s Test rebuild.

In the wake of the full-blown crisis that descended on Australian cricket after Hobart, the coach was advised by high performance boss Pat Howard that he needed to try to “reinvent” himself.

But just as Lehmann finally got a result with a brand new squad picked with an eye to the future, the momentum could now be killed by a nonsensical change in formats in the middle of the Test summer.

The upcoming Pakistan Test series is crucial, but the coach and his players can’t give it their full attention.

Lehmann appeared annoyed during his post-Test press conference in Adelaide as he took some subtle digs at the criticisms levelled at him and his team over recent weeks.

LESSONS LEARNED: Aussies scrap rotation policy for Kiwi visit

The coach feels he can’t win when it comes to contentious issues like resting players and the size of his support staff, and when asked about whether he’d reinvented himself, Lehmann deadpanned: “I was going to wear a suit to the press conference. I didn’t. I chose not to.”

When asked about the schedule served up to him, Lehmann denied any urge to complain, but just by answering he illustrated how ludicrous the situation is.

“You can’t do anything about it. It’s red ball, pink ball, white ball, pink ball then red ball,” he said.

“It’s just the way it is. You can’t complain about it, just get on with it.”

But the truth is these one-day matches against New Zealand starting on Sunday robs everyone in Australian cricket — not least of all Lehmann.

Fast bowlers Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood have enough responsibility on their shoulders already without the added burden of changing from long-form cricket to the white ball and then back again.

Enthusiastic debutants Matt Renshaw, Peter Handscomb and Nic Maddinson have just got a taste for the Test match caper and now have to hang up their sweat-soaked baggy greens for another fortnight.

Star quicks Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood will be thrown into the ODI series.
Team bonding will have to wait.

Even Glenn Maxwell, who no doubt is happy to be back in international cricket, is missing more Sheffield Shield cricket just when Australia wants him putting his hand up for a Test tour in India.

The excitement of relaunching a Test team suddenly had everyone talking about cricket again, but over the next six days the punters have got nothing much to talk about at all.

At a time of year when cricket simply has to own the sporting landscape, nearly a full week will go by without an Australian team playing any form of the game.

New Zealand are a great rival, but now’s not the time.

A lack of red ball preparation cost Australia dearly in the lost series against South Africa, and now the coach must hold his breath again about what impact a random ODI series will have on his players for the Tests against Pakistan.

The fine win in Adelaide doesn’t change the fact that Lehmann has been put under serious pressure by the team’s five-match losing streak.

Yet at the same time Lehmann is being told to “reinvent”, his superiors at Cricket Australia are giving him a schedule that contributes to his feeling that he is continually compromised.

Lehmann says he feels “damned if he does and damned if he doesn’t”, but if anyone has snookered him it’s his own organisation.

The one thing overlooked is for the last 20+ years the first test has been played in Brisbane, Australia have a huge record up there, so my point is why change a schedule that has a winning formula to it?

AU 429
PA 142
AU 5/202 DEC
PA 8/382

Asad Shafiq 100 not out
Yasir Shah 4 not out

Stumps day 4
PA have now made the highest 4th innings score made at the Gabba
Are now 108 runs off chasing down the 490 run target
Surely they wont get there

ASAD SHAFIQ
Batting average of 41.11 coming into this match
His 100 is the 10th of his career
He now holds a world record of the most hundreds made batting at number 6 in Test cricket
Asad Shafiq now has 9 tons batting at 6
Gary Sobers with 8 had the equal best with Shafiq

Ricky Ponting has 7
Thats a lot , considering how often Ricky batted at 3
The great man turns 42 today

Pakistan have certainly made it interesting.
I think most people would have given it up as an Australian win by the long break yesterday.

Their batting needs to be commended for;
a) entertainment value for spectators
b) courage to have a go at the total and not just trying to grind out a 1.5 run an over draw
c) withstanding some decently quick short pitched bowling

why was i hoping they'd get up ? probably because of the history of the game

out Maddison in Head ? i'd go that way plus Head can bowl a bit

450 Pakistan , a magnificent effort

There are 2 things that affect sides that chase 400+ for sides batting last

The pitch is usually at its worst for batting
Sides have limited time to chase targets

If Pakistan made the runs today, they would have done so with about 2 sessions left to play
So chasing 400+ is attainable with time and conditions permitting

I kept thinking throughout today, we should have batted them out of the game with 500+
Alls well that ends well

bayman wrote:out Maddison in Head ? i'd go that way plus Head can bowl a bit

In all fairness Maddison should get one more chance
I would definitely select him
But if he does play in the second test , how would Callum Ferguson feel being dropped after one game , and one of his dismissals was an unlucky run out

The lack of a good 5th bowler or bowling option hurt Australia in the 2nd dig
4 bowlers are usually OK when conditions suit bowlers
4 bowlers on flat decks can be a problem

I think they announced an unchanged team for Melbourne.
I agree our bowling seems a little thin.
There are options there but Smith seems a bit conservative to try things for mine.
He needs to roll the dice a bit now and then.
Even bowl himself for variation.

It was even suggested give Wade a bowl who is apparently quick.

It looked like Starc and Hazelwood had too big a workload.

HILTON CARTWRIGHT

Born Valentines day 1992
The WA allrounder picked in the squad for the 2nd test v Pakistan
The Australian selectors pursuing the 5th bowling allrounder selection policy
I see some logic

The days of a 4 man attack look might be outdated
When a 4 man attack was something like
McGrath
Lee
Gillespie/Clark
Warne
You could get away with it
Warne bowling plenty of overs , and the quality of attack , meant Australia could get away with 4 bowlers
Since Warne retired the selectors have selected allrounders like
Symonds
Watson
M Marsh

Will Cartwright become the bonanza the selectors are bending over for, something to ponder over ?

First class batting record
890 runs
44.50
2 x 100
53.16 strike rate

First Class Bowling
15 wickets
41.93 average
3.86 economy
65.1 strike rate

That batting average is good enough to be picked
That he can bowl might come in handy