SELECTIONS - 5 December 2006

POOMA selections:

There are no POOMA selections today

Non-POOMA selections (and ruffies in red below):

Kyneton 8-8, 8-9
Scone 3-1

Today: Last day of the Adelaide Test and I'm not expecting anything other than more boredom as the players somnambulate through another two sessions and then call it quits at tea. I have commented to my mates for some time that I don't believe that Brett Lee is a top class bowler, which is generally receieved as an extreme heresy. This first became apparent when McGrath was out of the side against Zimbabwe a couple of years ago and the opening combination was Lee/Gillespie. That series also raised my concerns about Gillespie, which became fatally proven during the Ashes series last year. Lee is simply not able to step into the role of 'team leader' of the fast bowlers. One of the issues is that he is too short at around 5'11" and doesn't do enough with the ball so on a flat pitch can be played off the front foot even when his bowling is clocked at over 150kph. He has an OK wicket strike rate of 53 but his bowling average of nearly 32 from his 55 Tests speaks to my point. In his last 20 Tests (after the Bangladesh and Zimbwabe series) his average is nearly 35 and against England overall it's a whopping 45. There is an argument that he terrorises batsmen while McGrath cleans them up at the other end but his bowling averages against cricketing minnows Bangladesh (47 from 4 Tests) and Zimbabwe (37 from 2 Tests) don't support the argument. Our batting is strong enough and there's a lot of depth below Test level that will support that aspect of the team going forward. However, when Shaun Tait is seriously considered as a Test bowler then I have to suggest that there's not much coming through in the fast bowling ranks. He seems to get wickets by surprising the batsmen (and no doubt himself) with the odd fast, inswinging yorker that's on target. If McGrath is really in the very twilight of his career then we are heading for a period that lacks the success we've had over the last 10 years. Not much to report on the racing today apart from the interesting runner from the Freedman stable in race 6 at Kyneton. Miss River Street has had her 6 starts in the USA and has notched up $81K in prizemoney. If she's anywhere near right then she should blow them away. There looks like a fair pace in the race and if there's going to be an upset then it might come from Klondike Kid, which will settle back and charge home. I'll analyse the quaddies, as I always do, and might look to stand out Mackay 5-4 Slice Of The Pie, as this is much easier company than he's been racing around in lately.

Yesterday: Was a slow day at the cricket. Were there races on?