Australia’s coach Mickey Arthur has rounded on critics of the national team’s management of fast bowlers, taking particularly sharp aim at the contention that the selection panel is letting sports science make its decisions regarding who to choose.
In a prolonged rebuttal of public and media views that there is confusion if not chaos around Australian team selection, Arthur revealed that a major factor behind Mitchell Starc’s withdrawal from the Boxing Day Test team was to avoid the flaring of a long-term ankle problem that will eventually require surgery and an extended lay-off from the game.
He also confirmed that Michael Clarke, Matthew Wade and David Warner would return to the ODI team for the second phase of matches in Brisbane and Sydney on Friday and Sunday, and clarified that Usman Khawaja was dropped for Steve Smith under a pre-defined plan to give each batsman one game. Australia have been widely criticised by former players and sections of the public for fielding a “B-team” in the first two matches of the series, but Arthur went to considerable lengths to explain the intricacies of selection.
“We’re very clear on who the best team is and who the best attack is,” Arthur said following Australia’s defeat in the second ODI in Adelaide. “I’ve been really annoyed and frustrated by some of the articles that have been going around. For me it’s common sense. Common sense prevails when we pick teams. We certainly don’t pick teams not to win any cricket games for Australia. Every time we pick a team we’re giving guys opportunities and picking what we think is the best side possible to go out and do the job and win.
“It’s either very naive or just a little bit stubborn that people don’t understand what we’re doing. The example I’ve used is Black Caviar. When he runs a horse race, if they don’t feel he’s 100% right they don’t release him. We’ve done that with our bowlers, and over the year we’ve had three examples of quick bowlers basically rested, and that is all.
“Ryan Harris in the West Indies, Mitchell Starc on Boxing Day and Peter Siddle at Perth. That’s the only time we have rested quick bowlers, and we’ve done that simply because we think they’re at risk. We want to play our guys all the time. With the amount of cricket we play these day’s it is impossible to keep the guys on the park in every single game. So we would not have a quick bowler at risk.”
