00:00:00
Speaker 1: Big story that landed overnight very late last night, mind you, 10pm. An exclusive on Code Sports by our next guest, Dan Cherney, in regards to some injury replacements. for the Australian Test squad for Durban next week when they take on South Africa. It'll be a big, big series, but, boy, we are low on infantry, and we'll get a man on who, of course, knows plenty about our Australian cricket team and the Test team and its make-up, Dan Cherney. Thanks for joining us. What a huge development we had last night. Walk us through what's happened.
00:00:30
Speaker 2: No, could you repeat yourself, Timmy? Yeah, look... there've been a few injury concerns in the lead up to this test series, which is now only a week or so away. In fact, this time next week, uh, you know, it'll be on, um, at, uh, at Kingsbury and Durban, which is very exciting. And there's so much anticipation around this series, um, for obvious reasons, given the history between these two teams, even well before sandpaper. I mean, there's generally always fantastic clashes between these sides, but yeah, the injury. So, um, Josh Inglis, uh, he was probably the first to fall down, um, from a test perspective on this tour. He had a, finger injury in one of the one-day games, and he's actually gone back to Perth. There is a fracture there. Now, they haven't ruled him out of the Tour altogether, and clearly he's not in the XI to start with, or unlikely to be in the XI to start with. He wasn't a member of the Test XI in the most recent matches in Darwin and Mackay. But they've flown over Sam Harper, who's come really from the Clouds, I mean, it's not that long ago that he was out of Victoria's side early last year, I suppose it would be early 2045. But he had an exceptional run in state career for Victoria and a century for Australia, right? In their current tour in India. And he's going to be sent over to South Africa as soon as that match is done in India. And he'll be playing... He won't be playing necessarily, probably won't be playing, but he'll be part of the squad. And then the other one was Nick Maddison, which was probably even more remarkable, which is saying something because Harper was pretty remarkable. But Maddison, who's overcome a cancer battle, hasn't played test cricket for Australia in almost 10 years. I don't think anyone really thought he was on the radar. No one really mentioned him. He hasn't played first-class cricket since early last year. missed much of last season with this cancer battle. And, you know, just a remarkable story just to get back at all. He did make a century, again, this time last week at the Junction Noble on grand final leave and a one-day for New South Wales. against Victoria, but nonetheless, very much a bolt from the blue. It's been a divisive selection. I think not everyone's happy for Nick in the sense that what a remarkable story that Nick's back in the test frame, given what he's been through. But he has seemingly leapfrogged a few of the guys that were in contention from the Australia A Tour. Unfortunately for them, not many have made runs. Curtis Patterson's also out injured at the moment, which he might have been another one that was in the mix. So now whether either of these guys play in the first test is somewhat doubtful. Cameron Greene, It was an abdominal strain. He's the one in doubt from a batting perspective. Not ruled out yet, but he suffered that injury in the third one day against South Africa. So quite a few moving parts. Cooper Connolly's waiting in the wings there as well in the squad. And obviously from a Kevin perspective, Alex Carey, unless something happens to him, then he'll be playing head of Harper.
00:03:04
Speaker 1: So the Nick Maddison one, as you've described, is a very, very left of center selection. No one would have thought that he was... in the frame at all. Have we heard any justification for his selection of the squad to this point and why?
00:03:16
Speaker 2: Look, the selectors haven't certainly, to my knowledge, haven't done any press conferences or anything like that. There was a brief statement accompanying the news last night from George Bailey. One thing that was noted was Nick Maddison was his versatility, which I think is reasonable. I mean, he batted middle order for Australia back in the day, but he has been an opener for a lot of his domestic career as well. And I do wonder whether at a level they are considering perhaps him playing and opening alongside Matt Renshaw and pushing Travis Head back down to number five if Cameron Green doesn't play. So I wonder if that's one of the considerations. Look, I suppose in some respects he's a head-style opener in that he's an aggressive left-hander. He is the kind of guy... Now, it's hard to be overly harsh... because you can say he hasn't made domestic runs in a long time. Well, being missing games due to a cancer battle is a pretty fair reason. Albeit, he's fallen probably in the half a season before that was not outstanding either. You go back probably a couple of years, he was sort of being discussed as a serious contender for one of the various opening vacancies that have arisen in recent times. He's a guy that runs very hot and cold. I mean, over the course of his career, he's had some runs, particularly from Victoria during his time over here where he was, you know, among the best players in domestic cricket, if not the best. There are other periods where he just really, you know, straddled him off the square and, as I said, runs very cold. He did make that time last week, so maybe they think, look, he's got the hot hand, a bit like Sam Harper, and they're just trying to, you know, trying to strike while the iron's hot. But, oh, look, as I said, it's pretty less of a centre, as you touched on, and a bold call, or perhaps a gamble, you could say.
00:04:53
Speaker 3: Yeah. Dan, I made 85 against the grandson this morning. I've got a pretty hot hand at the moment. I mean, fair dinkum. Where is selection integrity at? Honestly, what can George Bailey possibly... They haven't done a press conference. I'll tell you why they haven't done a press conference. It's because they cannot possibly justify this selection. Nothing against Nick whatsoever. Surely you've got to have a body of work behind you to play for Australia. This is not a T20 game and going, oh, he had good innings last week, put him in. This is playing test cricket for Australia against South Africa. It is bordering on incompetence.
00:05:36
Speaker 2: I think the problem is, look, I certainly get the passion and respect for this, and I think you're right in a sense. I mean, again, it's not as though he has a weight of recent runs, a weight of recent runs in shield cricket behind him. But the problem is, who else are you going to pick? I mean, no one has performed... Well, recently.
00:05:53
Speaker 1: So what about the blokes who were in the Australia A team? They've picked 11 guys to play over there and prove themselves at test level. There's three guys that won a Sheffield Shield last year, Sanger, Scott and McSweeney, West South Australian speaking, so we have a bias. But at the same time, they've been outstanding for two seasons in a row and they've backed them in to put them on the precipice for test selection. I mean, we get frustrated personally for them if they don't get looked at, but... At the same time, they've got more runs on the board, literally speaking, than Nick Maddison anyway.
00:06:24
Speaker 2: Now, we're not getting angry.
00:06:24
Speaker 3: Nick, it's not his fault. No.
00:06:26
Speaker 1: But it's the selection that now another 30-year-old, he's 34, with not a whole lot behind him, gets looked at. And the state group, who have been working so hard in this state system, aren't trusted.
00:06:40
Speaker 2: Unfortunately for, particularly I suppose for Nathan and for Jason Sanger, Both of them, they missed out in this tour of India. They had a chance, and they just weren't able to take it. The same could be said of Sam Constance. The same could be said of Peter Hanscom. Campbell Kello, I had a go there. You could accuse me of Victorian bias, but he was another player who was thereabouts. And, you know, the other thing, and South Australia did very, very well to win the Shield last year. And, look, Nathan McSweeney is a good player, but, you know, by the same token, he did average in the high 20s in the Shield season last year. So, again, he didn't necessarily bang down the door with the weight of Shield runs last year. Jason Stang had an excellent season two seasons ago. Last year was not quite as prolific. Look, you know, they all have claims, but, again, I think because none of them had a sort of a claim that you could completely, you know, knock your socks off. I don't think any of them have huge grounds to complain. Liam Scott's a bit of a different scenario. Obviously, he's an all-rounder. I suppose it probably shows that they view Green more as a top five, you know, top four, you know, top five, top six batter, which Scott has not historically been for South Australia. He's probably more, you know, a.
00:07:47
Speaker 3: Six, seven, eight.
00:07:48
Speaker 2: But, you know, I think he couldn't be that far off, and he's a guy who has, so I think he continues to stand up in that age where he had that look in in the one-day international earlier this year as well. I think it was Bangladesh he played. But, no, look, your points are valid. And, look, there are some South Australians that probably have been a bit hard done by, like Nathan McAndrew, you know, has been probably a bit stiff not to be part of some of these A-tours of recent times. But, as I said, unfortunately, they have the guy, Sam Harper's an example of a guy who was given a chance in the A-tour and he's taken the chance in the A-tour. And that's why he's going ahead of Josh Phillippe.
00:08:21
Speaker 1: Yeah.
00:08:22
Speaker 2: Happy with him.
00:08:24
Speaker 3: The standing chairman, Mr Boone, will he have anything to do with selection moving forward? I mean, yeah. I can't see Boone being happy with this. I can't see him being happy with.
00:08:37
Speaker 1: What would you... It feels like.
00:08:39
Speaker 3: The marble come out of the spinning, you know, bingo ball.
00:08:44
Speaker 1: This has been a frustration for a long time, isn't it? The selection panel of Test cricket. Where does it sit and where does the accountability come from, Dan?
00:08:53
Speaker 2: Look, I think ultimately the accountability comes from the results. And it's a huge 12 months coming up for them. We all have youth in selection. There are selections where I scratch my head at times. I thought, for instance, the one that I can't quite get my head around last summer was the one of Steve Smith's Not that he didn't actually go to the T20 or eventually not that he didn't play, but they didn't pick him for those T20s in Pakistan at the start of the year. Have a look at him in the middle order where, you know, just give him a chance for a series where the stakes were low and they were, you know, rolling through quite a lot of players. But look, there are always selections and that's the nature of it. And, you know, it's the strength of Australian cricket that people care and have a strong opinion. I think ultimately in terms of accountability, as I said, the results, you know, the proof will be in the pudding. They've had a... They've had a pretty successful run for all, you know, for all the complaints. They haven't lost a bilateral test series since early 2023. They're the reigning World Cup champions. You know, they made the last two World Test Championship finals, including winning one of them. They hold the Ashes. They hold the Board of Gavasker Trophy. But the next, you know, 10 months with the test tours of South Africa, India and England will you know, go a long way to shaping clearly the legacies of this generation of players. But also, I think, yeah, the future of the selectors and the coach, Andrew McDonald. I mean, I think if things, you know, go massively... AWOL or Arai, then I think you could easily see movement there. But I think probably to this point, as much as the selections do cause some head-scratching, they've also had plenty of eyebrow-raising ones that have worked, like the decision to pick Michael Nisa, the Gabba last year, and the pink ball test ahead of Nathan Lyon, and then he takes a five. It's a tricky one. I think they wish they had more guys that were making hugely compelling cases with the bats. Unfortunately, they just don't, and that's where you sort of end up with a left-field selection like a Maddison, which is a gamble. But, you know, I think, you know, the counter-argument and the fact to play Deleuze, I think most of these guys would have been gambles to a degree.
00:10:51
Speaker 1: Well, Dan, you've covered it off beautifully. We appreciate your time tonight, and thank you for answering a.
00:10:55
Speaker 2: Lot of our questions.
00:10:55
Speaker 3: Thanks, Dan.
00:10:57
Speaker 2: No dramas, guys. Have a good weekend.
00:10:58
Speaker 1: He writes some good stuff for Code Sports, Dan Cherney, and he'll be across it all summer with the Australian Test team.
Speaker 1: Big story that landed overnight very late last night, mind you, 10pm. An exclusive on Code Sports by our next guest, Dan Cherney, in regards to some injury replacements. for the Australian Test squad for Durban next week when they take on South Africa. It'll be a big, big series, but, boy, we are low on infantry, and we'll get a man on who, of course, knows plenty about our Australian cricket team and the Test team and its make-up, Dan Cherney. Thanks for joining us. What a huge development we had last night. Walk us through what's happened.
00:00:30
Speaker 2: No, could you repeat yourself, Timmy? Yeah, look... there've been a few injury concerns in the lead up to this test series, which is now only a week or so away. In fact, this time next week, uh, you know, it'll be on, um, at, uh, at Kingsbury and Durban, which is very exciting. And there's so much anticipation around this series, um, for obvious reasons, given the history between these two teams, even well before sandpaper. I mean, there's generally always fantastic clashes between these sides, but yeah, the injury. So, um, Josh Inglis, uh, he was probably the first to fall down, um, from a test perspective on this tour. He had a, finger injury in one of the one-day games, and he's actually gone back to Perth. There is a fracture there. Now, they haven't ruled him out of the Tour altogether, and clearly he's not in the XI to start with, or unlikely to be in the XI to start with. He wasn't a member of the Test XI in the most recent matches in Darwin and Mackay. But they've flown over Sam Harper, who's come really from the Clouds, I mean, it's not that long ago that he was out of Victoria's side early last year, I suppose it would be early 2045. But he had an exceptional run in state career for Victoria and a century for Australia, right? In their current tour in India. And he's going to be sent over to South Africa as soon as that match is done in India. And he'll be playing... He won't be playing necessarily, probably won't be playing, but he'll be part of the squad. And then the other one was Nick Maddison, which was probably even more remarkable, which is saying something because Harper was pretty remarkable. But Maddison, who's overcome a cancer battle, hasn't played test cricket for Australia in almost 10 years. I don't think anyone really thought he was on the radar. No one really mentioned him. He hasn't played first-class cricket since early last year. missed much of last season with this cancer battle. And, you know, just a remarkable story just to get back at all. He did make a century, again, this time last week at the Junction Noble on grand final leave and a one-day for New South Wales. against Victoria, but nonetheless, very much a bolt from the blue. It's been a divisive selection. I think not everyone's happy for Nick in the sense that what a remarkable story that Nick's back in the test frame, given what he's been through. But he has seemingly leapfrogged a few of the guys that were in contention from the Australia A Tour. Unfortunately for them, not many have made runs. Curtis Patterson's also out injured at the moment, which he might have been another one that was in the mix. So now whether either of these guys play in the first test is somewhat doubtful. Cameron Greene, It was an abdominal strain. He's the one in doubt from a batting perspective. Not ruled out yet, but he suffered that injury in the third one day against South Africa. So quite a few moving parts. Cooper Connolly's waiting in the wings there as well in the squad. And obviously from a Kevin perspective, Alex Carey, unless something happens to him, then he'll be playing head of Harper.
00:03:04
Speaker 1: So the Nick Maddison one, as you've described, is a very, very left of center selection. No one would have thought that he was... in the frame at all. Have we heard any justification for his selection of the squad to this point and why?
00:03:16
Speaker 2: Look, the selectors haven't certainly, to my knowledge, haven't done any press conferences or anything like that. There was a brief statement accompanying the news last night from George Bailey. One thing that was noted was Nick Maddison was his versatility, which I think is reasonable. I mean, he batted middle order for Australia back in the day, but he has been an opener for a lot of his domestic career as well. And I do wonder whether at a level they are considering perhaps him playing and opening alongside Matt Renshaw and pushing Travis Head back down to number five if Cameron Green doesn't play. So I wonder if that's one of the considerations. Look, I suppose in some respects he's a head-style opener in that he's an aggressive left-hander. He is the kind of guy... Now, it's hard to be overly harsh... because you can say he hasn't made domestic runs in a long time. Well, being missing games due to a cancer battle is a pretty fair reason. Albeit, he's fallen probably in the half a season before that was not outstanding either. You go back probably a couple of years, he was sort of being discussed as a serious contender for one of the various opening vacancies that have arisen in recent times. He's a guy that runs very hot and cold. I mean, over the course of his career, he's had some runs, particularly from Victoria during his time over here where he was, you know, among the best players in domestic cricket, if not the best. There are other periods where he just really, you know, straddled him off the square and, as I said, runs very cold. He did make that time last week, so maybe they think, look, he's got the hot hand, a bit like Sam Harper, and they're just trying to, you know, trying to strike while the iron's hot. But, oh, look, as I said, it's pretty less of a centre, as you touched on, and a bold call, or perhaps a gamble, you could say.
00:04:53
Speaker 3: Yeah. Dan, I made 85 against the grandson this morning. I've got a pretty hot hand at the moment. I mean, fair dinkum. Where is selection integrity at? Honestly, what can George Bailey possibly... They haven't done a press conference. I'll tell you why they haven't done a press conference. It's because they cannot possibly justify this selection. Nothing against Nick whatsoever. Surely you've got to have a body of work behind you to play for Australia. This is not a T20 game and going, oh, he had good innings last week, put him in. This is playing test cricket for Australia against South Africa. It is bordering on incompetence.
00:05:36
Speaker 2: I think the problem is, look, I certainly get the passion and respect for this, and I think you're right in a sense. I mean, again, it's not as though he has a weight of recent runs, a weight of recent runs in shield cricket behind him. But the problem is, who else are you going to pick? I mean, no one has performed... Well, recently.
00:05:53
Speaker 1: So what about the blokes who were in the Australia A team? They've picked 11 guys to play over there and prove themselves at test level. There's three guys that won a Sheffield Shield last year, Sanger, Scott and McSweeney, West South Australian speaking, so we have a bias. But at the same time, they've been outstanding for two seasons in a row and they've backed them in to put them on the precipice for test selection. I mean, we get frustrated personally for them if they don't get looked at, but... At the same time, they've got more runs on the board, literally speaking, than Nick Maddison anyway.
00:06:24
Speaker 2: Now, we're not getting angry.
00:06:24
Speaker 3: Nick, it's not his fault. No.
00:06:26
Speaker 1: But it's the selection that now another 30-year-old, he's 34, with not a whole lot behind him, gets looked at. And the state group, who have been working so hard in this state system, aren't trusted.
00:06:40
Speaker 2: Unfortunately for, particularly I suppose for Nathan and for Jason Sanger, Both of them, they missed out in this tour of India. They had a chance, and they just weren't able to take it. The same could be said of Sam Constance. The same could be said of Peter Hanscom. Campbell Kello, I had a go there. You could accuse me of Victorian bias, but he was another player who was thereabouts. And, you know, the other thing, and South Australia did very, very well to win the Shield last year. And, look, Nathan McSweeney is a good player, but, you know, by the same token, he did average in the high 20s in the Shield season last year. So, again, he didn't necessarily bang down the door with the weight of Shield runs last year. Jason Stang had an excellent season two seasons ago. Last year was not quite as prolific. Look, you know, they all have claims, but, again, I think because none of them had a sort of a claim that you could completely, you know, knock your socks off. I don't think any of them have huge grounds to complain. Liam Scott's a bit of a different scenario. Obviously, he's an all-rounder. I suppose it probably shows that they view Green more as a top five, you know, top four, you know, top five, top six batter, which Scott has not historically been for South Australia. He's probably more, you know, a.
00:07:47
Speaker 3: Six, seven, eight.
00:07:48
Speaker 2: But, you know, I think he couldn't be that far off, and he's a guy who has, so I think he continues to stand up in that age where he had that look in in the one-day international earlier this year as well. I think it was Bangladesh he played. But, no, look, your points are valid. And, look, there are some South Australians that probably have been a bit hard done by, like Nathan McAndrew, you know, has been probably a bit stiff not to be part of some of these A-tours of recent times. But, as I said, unfortunately, they have the guy, Sam Harper's an example of a guy who was given a chance in the A-tour and he's taken the chance in the A-tour. And that's why he's going ahead of Josh Phillippe.
00:08:21
Speaker 1: Yeah.
00:08:22
Speaker 2: Happy with him.
00:08:24
Speaker 3: The standing chairman, Mr Boone, will he have anything to do with selection moving forward? I mean, yeah. I can't see Boone being happy with this. I can't see him being happy with.
00:08:37
Speaker 1: What would you... It feels like.
00:08:39
Speaker 3: The marble come out of the spinning, you know, bingo ball.
00:08:44
Speaker 1: This has been a frustration for a long time, isn't it? The selection panel of Test cricket. Where does it sit and where does the accountability come from, Dan?
00:08:53
Speaker 2: Look, I think ultimately the accountability comes from the results. And it's a huge 12 months coming up for them. We all have youth in selection. There are selections where I scratch my head at times. I thought, for instance, the one that I can't quite get my head around last summer was the one of Steve Smith's Not that he didn't actually go to the T20 or eventually not that he didn't play, but they didn't pick him for those T20s in Pakistan at the start of the year. Have a look at him in the middle order where, you know, just give him a chance for a series where the stakes were low and they were, you know, rolling through quite a lot of players. But look, there are always selections and that's the nature of it. And, you know, it's the strength of Australian cricket that people care and have a strong opinion. I think ultimately in terms of accountability, as I said, the results, you know, the proof will be in the pudding. They've had a... They've had a pretty successful run for all, you know, for all the complaints. They haven't lost a bilateral test series since early 2023. They're the reigning World Cup champions. You know, they made the last two World Test Championship finals, including winning one of them. They hold the Ashes. They hold the Board of Gavasker Trophy. But the next, you know, 10 months with the test tours of South Africa, India and England will you know, go a long way to shaping clearly the legacies of this generation of players. But also, I think, yeah, the future of the selectors and the coach, Andrew McDonald. I mean, I think if things, you know, go massively... AWOL or Arai, then I think you could easily see movement there. But I think probably to this point, as much as the selections do cause some head-scratching, they've also had plenty of eyebrow-raising ones that have worked, like the decision to pick Michael Nisa, the Gabba last year, and the pink ball test ahead of Nathan Lyon, and then he takes a five. It's a tricky one. I think they wish they had more guys that were making hugely compelling cases with the bats. Unfortunately, they just don't, and that's where you sort of end up with a left-field selection like a Maddison, which is a gamble. But, you know, I think, you know, the counter-argument and the fact to play Deleuze, I think most of these guys would have been gambles to a degree.
00:10:51
Speaker 1: Well, Dan, you've covered it off beautifully. We appreciate your time tonight, and thank you for answering a.
00:10:55
Speaker 2: Lot of our questions.
00:10:55
Speaker 3: Thanks, Dan.
00:10:57
Speaker 2: No dramas, guys. Have a good weekend.
00:10:58
Speaker 1: He writes some good stuff for Code Sports, Dan Cherney, and he'll be across it all summer with the Australian Test team.
