Punter's Presser....

In a way Ricky Ponting's press conference yesterday didn't tell us much and, in another way, it did.

If you were waiting for an announcement regarding retirement, as the reader might suspect could have been the case here in The Little House of Concrete, the lack of such an announcement would have been a disappointment, and if you're still waiting for such an announcement I wouldn't be holding my breath, since there's a strong possibility there won't be an announcement at all.

It's quite possible that there'll be a low key press release at some point down the track along the lines that Mr Ponting has asked not to be considered for whatever squad he was still playing for at the end of last season.

What was remarkable, as I sat down to watch the announcement yesterday morning was the change in tone from the confident predictions being made around twelve months ago regarding the next Ashes series and points beyond. It's obvious, after the Argus Review and the Haddin imbroglio, this selection panel will make some hard nosed decisions when hard nosed decisions need to be made, and the interesting part from where I'm sitting is the path we're going to be following on the way forward.

Ponting obviously expects to be going to the West Indies next month, and you'd have to assume this expectation has some sort of base in selectorial advice.

That's presumably something like You're good for the Caribbean, Ricky, but we can't guarantee anything after that.

Jimbo and I were discussing these matters (or rather Hughesy was expounding the themes being pursued here with interjections and wry observations from Jimbo) on the morning walk today, and here's the way I'm hoping things will go from here.

Now, for a start it seems fairly obvious that Ponting and/or Hussey will be winging to the Windies, along with Messrs Haddin, Wade and Forrest, who seems to be the next cab off the batting rank.

Personally, I'd rather see Forrest and another up and comer thrown in at the deep end with the whole side being told they can't be depending on Ricky and Mr Cricket to be digging in when the rest of the side gets themselves into a hole. If a Ponting and Hussey-less side can't handle the West Indies (that's not putting the Windies down, it's looking at relative rankings and recent form) they're not going to handle second-ranked South Africa six or seven months later, are they?

No, I'd prefer to see incumbents, hopefully with some reasonable Test form behind them facing challenges from two old blokes who've been rested for the winter and want their old spots back and a couple of younger hungry blokes who reckon it's about time they got a go, and that contest would be staged against a pack of fast bowlers jostling for four berths (five, if you look at one of them being twelfth man and there's an all-rounder in the mix).

As stated last time around, this would be something like Warner and Cowan being pushed by Hughes, Quiney and Marsh for the two opening slots and Ponting, Clarke, Watson, Hussey, Forrest, Khawaja, Christian, Ferguson, Cooper, Smith and anyone else who sticks his hand up in the meantime slugging it out for four spots in the middle order.

Under this scenario there may well be a side walking on to the Gabba without Ponting and/or Hussey.

Assuming that both go to the West Indies and don't do enough to stake a solid claim to a continuing berth in the batting order even if they are there it may just be a matter of skin and teeth.

Somewhere along the next twelve months there's going to be a day of reckoning.

What I'll be interested to see is what happens when that day comes. From the Ponting presser yesterday you could hypothesise a situation where Ricky, rested or replaced, is having a go at getting his place back. Is there a way to ensure this scenario, if that's the way it pans out, can be turned to everyone's advantage.

Actually, there is.

Go back to that list of names trying to shoe horn their way into the batting order by monstering attacks that include (assuming they're all fit, and working clockwise from Queensland) Harris, Cutting, young McDermott, Cummins, Copeland, Starc, Pattinson, Siddle, McDonald, Hilfenhaus, Faulkner, Bird, Christian, George, Mitchell Johnson and Coulter-Nile. That was just to get a spot in the Test at the Gabba. Once that squad has been named there'll be plenty of jostling as those who missed out in both departments try to work their way towards next cab off the rank.

Ricky Ponting and Michael Hussey, setting out with a point to prove would only be able to do it by monstering attacks that are going to bristling with tyros jockeying for position, and those blokes jockeyng for position are going to know the only way to work their way up the pecking order is by taking wickets a\gainst a Tasmanian side that includes Ponting or a warriors side with Hussey wanting his old spot back.

It probably won't work out that way, but in those circumstances we'd be looking at a situation where anyone  staking a claom is going to be doing so on the back of good form against decent opposition.

As I remarked to Jimbo a few days ago, back in the days when I was involved with school cricket I was on first name terms with the panel charged with selecting the state rep squad, and in one particular case that acquaintance went back over fifteen years. Discussing things relating to selection, I frequently heard comments along the lines of not being sure whether a kid would be able to handle the rise to the next level.

Fair enough. You start with a kid playing for his school. He may or may not handle the step up to district level. From there it's a case of further steps to Zone and Regional rep status before you're even looking at State selection.

Just because the kid went from here to there doesn't mean he's going to handle the next step up.

Fair enough. I've used the I don't think he's good enough for the next stage plenty of times myself.

Go back to that selection scenario before the Gabba Test, however, and there's no way you're going to look at Forrest, Khawaja, Ferguson, Cooper or anyonr else who's coming off a couple of big hundreds and downplay the scores because they were made against under strength opposition.

The same way, assuming young McDermott, Bird or Coulter-Nile (to pick three names that are probably well down the pecking order) manage to pick up a couple of five-or six-fors you're not going to be sufggesting that anyone could do that against that batting order,

Over recent years there have been a number of suggestions that Shield cricket hasn't been the strong platform we need to deliver quality players to the top level. For the next domestic season, that might not be the case...

There are reasons why players aren't selectors

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought the situation regarding Australia's wicketkeeper went something like this. Brad Haddin is the incumbent in the Test side, while the selection panel wanted to use Matthew Wade for the T20s and the first part of the three way ODI series.

Beyond that (and we're not going to be searching back to find the verifying links, so the old memory might not have it exactly right) Wade was going to be headed to the West Indies with the limited overs squad and would stay on as reserve wicketkeeper and reserve batsman in a situation where flying in replacements at short notice will be nigh on impossible.

Now, without having access to a convenient phone tap or getting fly on the wall status you're not going to know exactly what had been said in any conversation between wicketkeeper and national selector, but one suspects the comment from Inverarity was along the lines of we want to have a look at Wade behind the stumps for the first part of the one day series at least.

On that basis, it might be safe to conclude that the selection panel are still looking. It's not as if there's a whole lot riding on this particular series.

Actually it would have been interesting to have been able to check in to that conversation to see whether Tim Paine was mentioned in despatches, because had Paine been fit at the start of the series against New Zealand Mr Haddin may well have found himself on the outer.

That prospect of a spot in the outer seems to have behind recent remarks from Shane Watson as well, and one starts to suspect that Messrs Ponting and Hussey are definites to go to the West Indies. At least that's the way it seems to look from where Watto's sitting.

He seems to be assuming Shaun Marsh will force his way back into his spot at Three through weight of Shield runs (should make the Shield game that starts later today at the WACA interesting, that feller) and with Punter and Mr Cricket in the XI the only spot for Watto is going to be one of the two opening positions.

From where I'm sitting, however, things aren't quite that cut and dried.

We've got a series against South Africa coming up later this year, and it's going to be a case of dealing with a four man pace attack that will more than likely include Morkel, Steyn and Philander. Should be interesting.

Player self interest, of course, means they'd prefer to see the squad selected from no more than seven batsmen, with the incumbents there until they either lose the desire or encounter a run of form that's too horrendously bad to ignore.

Assuming Watson stays fit and Marsh doesn't score a squillion Shield runs in the next couple of weeks, on the other hand Watson for Marsh would seem to be a logical move for the Caribbean. On that basis you could also move Ponting to Three with Watto to slide into Four or Five, depending on where the captain sees himself.

All well and good, I hear you say, but what about Hussey?

From the comfy chair in the office at the Little House of Concrete the answer's straightforward. He stays at home. Forrest appears to be the next cab off the rank (or maybe Christian if we're looking for an all-rounder to cover a non-bowling Watto) so he goes to the Caribbean to bat Six. Hopefully he scores enough runs to stay in contention at the start of the South African/Sri Lankan summer, which would result in the following rather interesting scenario.

You would have Warner and Cowan, the probable incumbents, being pushed by Hughes, Quiney and Marsh for the two opening slots.

With four batting berths in the middle order you'd be looking at Ponting, Clarke, Watson, Hussey, Forrest, Khawaja and Christian, along with Ferguson, Cooper, Smith or anyone else who sticks his hand up in the meantime.

And the whole dozen or so candidates for the six positions in the batting order would be setting out to stake their claims against a fast bowling lineup that would include (working clockwise from Queensland) Harris, Cutting, young McDermott, Cummins, Copeland, Starc, Pattinson, Siddle, McDonald, Hilfenhaus, Faulkner, Christian, George, Mitchell Johnson and Coulter-Nile. I've probably missed a few on the way through but that's enough to make the point.

That's fifteen possible contenders for four quick bowling slots. You wouldn't, under the circumstances, be overly keen on being a batsman would you?

So what else have we learned since the end of the Test series against India?

Well, for a start there have been a couple of interesting Shield clashes between South Australia and Victoria that saw a couple of centuries to Quiney and five wicket hauls o McDonald and Siddle. Faulkner took wickets for Tasmania against New South Wales in a game where Bailey and Steve Smith got runs and the Tigers ended up winning. Shaun Marsh got runs for the Warriors at the Gabba and they just scraped home with one wicket in hand as young McDermott took 7-24). Cutting got wickets as well, as did Coulter-Nile.

Meanwhile we've got Queensland taking on Tasmania at Bellerive and Western Australia at home to New South Wales. Cricinfo doesn't have teams up for those games just yet, but there'll be a number of players with points to prove.

On the ODI side of things we've got a reasonably close competition where no one's firing at 100% and the result could go any way, right down to a Sri Lankan win in the final. Without much riding on the series the main points of interest from here has been Wade, who has been long on promise and potential and short on actual delivery and Forrest, who looks to have potential but won't have too many opportunities to demonstrate it.

Among the opposition I'm rapidly cooling towards Dhoni, whose attitude with bat in hand seems to be a little too casual for mine, almost a case of I don't want to win this until the last over, so I'll take my time.

But we'll see, won't we? They're on again at the SCG this afternoon, with a squad that includes Clint McKay and Mitch Marsh who I conveniently left out of that clockwise fast bowling lineup a few paragraphs back.

Interesting times, indeed. Maybe that's why Hads and Watto are concerned about their long term prospects.