Axis of Bob

Yeah, Prior's stats in this series with the gloves show the worthlessness of catching stats for keepers. I reckon if I took the gloves for England then I'd have at least double the catches of Haddin for the series. Does that make me a better keeper, or even having a better series with the gloves? The last test series that Kamran Akmal played was against England last year in England. He had 17 catches from 3 games while Matt Prior had 12 catches and a stumping from 4 games. Who would you say had the better series as a keeper? Then note that the reason Kamran only played 3 tests was because he was dropped in the other test for ..... you guessed it ..... poor keeping. (Cricinfo article) Keeping stats are useless.

Haddin has had a better series than Prior. Prior has come in on flat tracks and made cheap runs in the last two tests, but has been ordinary until then. Haddin has been one of Australia's few winners, while Prior has played some pretty easy innings. Also, the idea that the number of catches constitutes a measure for a keeper's performance with the gloves complete crap. I don't think that Haddin is a great gloveman (neither is Prior, really), but the catching numbers are complete crap and mean nothing. Over the course of the series, Haddin has been presented with 9 chances while Prior has been presented with 24. Statistics, in themselves, mean nothing. It's the context that gives them meaning.

Interesting watching the Indian openers batting in South Africa. Sehwag out to an awful shot and Gambhir was dropped off an equally bad shot. With the ball moving around a bit they have been unable to leave the ball. Kallis was unbelievable. Especially yesterday when the pitch was really doing a lot. He and Amla turned the game with their partnership, before Amla threw it away. I am often surprised when Kallis isn't mentioned in the same breath as Tendulkar, Ponting and Lara. Nowhere near as exciting to watch him bat, but he is of the utmost quality.

It's funny how everyone is saying that we need to pick players in form. It sounds stupid, but I would say that this is the last thing we should be thinking about when selecting a test team at the moment. At the moment we are looking to discover future players rather than fill gaps. We need to select and play the players who have the talent to be long term cricketers in the test team. Selecting players who are in good form is great when you are a really good team and you just need to fill in gaps around your stars. You can select whichever 3rd pace bowler is in the best form when your other 3 bowlers are McGrath, Gillespie and Warne. Or you can select the number 6 batsman who in best form to fill in the gaps. But at the moment selecting the best form player is going to take us from being a crap team to being a slightly less crap team which is still crap. And when that player eventually loses form then we are left with absolutely nothing. Marcus North was the form player when he came into the side a few years ago. He was there because we had a weakness at 6 and quality batsmen at 3, 4 and 5. The selectors thought that he could help us win some important series, but once he lost form then we are left with nothing. However if we put Steve Smith at 6, or Hughes opening, then what happens if they lose form? We end up with a player who now has the experience to help become a quality long term player. Much like putting games of experience into kids in an AFL team when you're rebuilding, you need to invest the international experience in the players that are going to be able to bring you success. If the selectors think that Smith, Hughes and Beer will be among our best players in 4 years then I vote getting the games into them to accelerate their development. Similarly, Clarke's 4 runs means nothing in the long term. He is a long term player who is in poor form at the moment. But he has undoubted class and will eventually get back to his best.

Clarke's Twenty20 batting form has absolutely nothing to do with his suitability for the Australian test captaincy. Nothing at all. When he bats in a test match then the relevance of his ability to slog sixes is slightly less than infinitely small. Also, you are being grossly unfair saying that Clarke 'threw away his wicket on the last ball of the day trying a ridiculous shot'. He was turning a ball to leg, like he does comfortably so many times, and he got one that spun sharply on him. He didn't throw his wicket away and his shot certainly wasn't 'ridiculous'. He averages nearly 50 with the bat over an extended period of test cricket. He's clearly a good enough batsman, but is in a lean patch of form. So what is the real reason you don't think he should be captain? Cameron White could pssibly be a better captain, or then again he may not. But nobody in their right mind would think that he is a test calibre batsman - certainly at the moment. He averages just 42 in first class cricket batting at 5 and 6 behind the likes of Hodge and Hussey. The reason Victoria has been so good has been on the back of their more experienced players and the weakness of the other states at the moment. Hussey is a good first class batsman, Hodge too. With White and Rogers in the side, plus a genuine all rounder in McDonald, there is a side that has a solid core of players that is much better than other weak states. Add to them they have a solid core of experienced bowlers who are very good state cricketers, even if they have limited prospects above that - McKay, Nannes, Wright, Hastings, Harwood etc. Mind you, if Victoria played against a full strength NSW team team then they'd get smashed. Watson, Clarke, Haddin, Katich, Khawaja, Smith, Hughes, Jaques, Lee, Hauritz, Clark, Bollinger, Copeland ..... they'd get killed. The state with the best players hasn't been winning the shield because they've had to field their B-team as their best players have been playing for Australia. Victoria has a couple of top class internation prospects on the books. However they are currently under 21 years of age: Pattinson and Keath. These are the types of player that Victoria needs to promote, rather than search for trophies by filling the gaps with imports like Wright and Rogers.

Michael Clarke gets a shocking run of it from the punters on the sidelines. Why do people not want him as captain? Remember this is someone who, over his career, averages 48 with the bat. Talk that he shouldn't be captain because he is having bad series is idiotic. It is obvious that he is a class player who is just having a bad run of form and, that being the case, he is clearly a long term member of the Australian test set up. Since he is a long term player, the only question is whether or not he'd be a good captain. I think his work captaining the ODIs and T20s has been pretty good. Certainly there is nothing that he has done that has made me think that he's not the right person to captain the test side after Ponting. So, I ask again, why do you not want him to be captain? Who is the alternative? Why is the alternative better than Clarke? And don't get me started on the idiocy of people claiming NSW bias. I dare not even suggest that the next batsman who makes it into the Australian set up is an immensely talented 19 year old by the name of Nic Maddinson. Watson (NSW ex Qld ex Tas ex Qld) Hughes (NSW) Ponting (Tas) Clarke (NSW) Hussey (WA) Haddin (NSW) Johnson (WA ex Qld) Harris (Qld ex SA) Siddle (Vic) Hilfenhaus (Tas) Beer (WA ex Vic) 4 players out of 12? And that includes Watson, who was initially selected for Aus when playing for Tassie, and then for Queensland. 33% of players in the 12 for Melbourne. NSW contains 32% of all people in Australia (just over 7 million). One could argue, by the numbers, that they are under-represented!! I am a Victorian, but NSW is producing the best cricketers in the country (especially young cricketers).

I don't have a problem with the selections. I thought that Hughes for Katich and Smith for North were absolute monties to happen. The Ashes this year are gone. The current crop are clearly not going to win it for us, so there's no point selecting a player like D Hussey or Hauritz as our next spinner. We are better off selecting players who are a chance to help us win the next Ashes. And the one after that. And the one after that. Smith is currently a batsman who is developing his spin bowling game. He has a lot of spin potential, but he's a batting all rounder at the moment. People under rate his batting simply because they pigeon hole him as spin bowler who can bat, when it is currently the other way around. He's being selected as a batsman who happens bowl a bit. In time this may change, but not at the moment. He's being picked for the future - he's 21. And that's the same as Beer and Hughes. Hughes is only 22 years old and averages over 50 in first class and test cricket. He's a future player, even if he's not playing at his best at the moment. The spinner's role is a lottery and there is no spinner around the country at the moment that is good enough to demand a spot in the Australian team based purely on results. But there is a history of spinners being plucked from obscurity based on talent and temperament. Beer hasn't played a heap of first class cricket, but I'm prepared to give him a shot based on talent and temperament. I would have gone for O'Keefe, but that's only because I've seen him bowl - I haven't seen Beer enough to make a real judgement. I am happy that the selectors have selected for the future rather than go for the short term. After the retirement of our stars we have relied far too much on bringing in mature players to top up our top players. But now we lack those top players and the selectors are going to have to back their judgement and look for the next crop of top players. I like the selections.

That's awesome news, two sheds. I was kind of dreading opening this thread back up again, but that's bloody fantastic news. The human body is an insanely complicated machine, so it's nearly impossible for anyone to know exactly what's going on. All they can do is guess based on what has happened to other people that they think this may have happened to - but not you. Keep winning the fight.

I expected to read this and see a story about Jimmy's fight and I didn't open it until now because I hate even thinking about that sort of thing. Eventually I opened it and found a powerful tale a million times more confronting than I could ever have dreamt in my most horrible nightmare. I am 27 and my attitude is always one of accepting the current situation and working out the next best step from there. But that just smacks me in the face and I am utterly speechless. The best I have got is that I wish you as much luck and success in your fight as is humanly possible.