The most unfathomable aspect of the current malaise over the state of Australian cricket is that it was so hard to see coming.
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Who could possibly have foreseen that focusing too heavily on Twenty20 cricket could come to the detriment of longer formats?
Certainly not Cricket Australia. It’s not as if they commissioned a report into the 2009 Ashes loss that warned of that very eventuality.
Surely to goodness it was sufficient that they commissioned the report without being expected to either read it or, perish the thought, act upon it.
The Argus Report detailed four key batting deficiencies, namely a failure to bat for long periods, an inability to handle the moving ball, a poor approach to spin and generally flawed techniques.
Good to see that all of those were dealt with before the Hobart debacle.
Meanwhile, who could possibly predict that a player who announced himself in a T20 international and has played almost every shot since as if it was his last would get out in the first over of a Test match slashing at a Steve Harmison-style loosener?
Who could possibly have predicted that a lack of investment in youth would, over time, lead to a dearth of fresh young talent coming into the team?
Aside from future captains Ricky Ponting and Michael Clarke, it is difficult to think of a talented young batsman in the last 20 years that Australian selectors have called up AND kept faith with. And both of them were dropped early in their careers.
Even Steve Smith, clearly the best batsman in today’s team, was initially introduced to Test cricket as much as a spinner.
Who could possibly predict that cricketers happy to partake of lucrative whirlwind Indian Premier League schedules could suddenly fall victim to exhaustion/injury/over-paidness (made-up word alert)?
Who could possibly predict that batsmen would get out playing nervous, half-hearted attempted leaves when they have about as much confidence in their standing in the side as New Zealand's South Islanders have in their buildings?
Joe Burns, Usman Khawaja and Adam Voges stood on the same cricketing fault line in Hobart that the likes of Ed Cowan, Alex Doolan and Chris Rogers have graced in recent years.
The last six Australian summers have seen David Warner open the batting with five different partners (Shaun Marsh, Rogers, Burns, Cowan and Phil Hughes).
Contrast their fly-in, fly-out Test career status to Steve Waugh who had to wait until his 42nd Test innings before he made a century but at least retained the selectors’ faith.
Who could possibly have foreseen that slapping a two-month domestic T20 competition right in the middle of the Sheffield Shield season could slightly disrupt its performers?
It’s not as if there has been a shortage of informed observers highlighting the dangers of downgrading the domestic first-class competition.
Tasmania’s most successful coach Tim Coyle has been warning of this for years while Dan Christian and Allan Border jumped on the already overcrowded bandwagon in the last month.
“When that’s strong, the Aussie team looks after itself,” Border said of the Sheffield Shield.
“I think it’s been treated like a glorified practice match — experimenting with balls, styles of play, pitches and different experiments. I think we need to have a look at it and how it’s played.”
Widely-traveled all-rounder Christian was far less diplomatic, suggesting players had become “guinea pigs” for Cricket Australia.
“This season we’re using four different kinds of balls,” he said. “When they’re trying to get blokes ready for Test cricket and talking about them banging out 1000-run years, it’s ridiculous, absolutely ridiculous.”
Who could possibly have foreseen that a total lack of accountability would result in the team being somewhat unaccountable for its results?
Here’s an insight into how Australian cricket is run, and by whom.
In the post-thrashing press conference at Hobart, Australian captain Steve Smith was asked: “Are you getting the team you want?”
Much like he had at the crease a couple of hours earlier, Smith shuffled around awkwardly, attempted a vague response, failed to play any sort of shot and just hoped the tricky delivery would go through to the keeper.
When the same journalist hit straight back with: “So that's a ‘no’ then?”, the team’s latest all-powerful media manager stepped straight in and asked all reporters to limit themselves to just one question.
Smith opted not to respond to the follow-up question and gratefully turned his attention to the next assailant.
This is how untouchable Australian cricketers have become.
With such unpredictable eventualities, it is impossible not to have sympathy for the overseers of our besieged national summer sport.