Australian Tour of South Africa

[Booney]

Why don't they play some 2nd XI cricket during January period to bridge this gap of those not playing BBL?

I also don't understand why the BBL goes so long, they need to have more double headers (esp 26/12 - 5/1 period) and reduce the comp by at least a week, then you wouldn't have the farcical situation of the international BBL games crossing over the BBL finals.

They extended the BBL this year, wouldn't surprise me to see it go even longer next year.

[The Bedge]

They extended the BBL this year, wouldn't surprise me to see it go even longer next year.

Brendon McCullum all but said last night Test cricket is going the way of the dodo bird, whilst T20 continues to gain momentum and interest at a rate of knots.

Think that says volumes about where cricket is headed.

[mighty_tiger_79]

Should start resigning ourselves to the fact that Sayers will never play test cricket for Australia.

Not sure which selectors wife he has screwed, but if a no name in Richardson gets selected ahead of him without even so much as a phone call to explain why- then the writing is on the wall.

I have a feeling Boof has a fair bit to do with this one, in a lot of his interviews he talks about ability to bowl 140+.

Sad but Im now hoping for a few injuries so he has to be flown over there.

**** that Dutchy. Let them go over full strength and get smashed 4 ******* zip. Its what they deserve.

[mighty_tiger_79]

They extended the BBL this year, wouldn't surprise me to see it go even longer next year.

Brendon McCullum all but said last night Test cricket is going the way of the dodo bird, whilst T20 continues to gain momentum and interest at a rate of knots.

Think that says volumes about where cricket is headed.

They extended the BBL but attendances and tv audiences are down. Ever so slightly, but are down.

[bennymacca]

Why don't they play some 2nd XI cricket during January period to bridge this gap of those not playing BBL?

I also don't understand why the BBL goes so long, they need to have more double headers (esp 26/12 - 5/1 period) and reduce the comp by at least a week, then you wouldn't have the farcical situation of the international BBL games crossing over the BBL finals.

They extended the BBL this year, wouldn't surprise me to see it go even longer next year.

If they extend it with more games that would be ok but as dutchy said, needs to be played in a similar if not shorter timeframe.

[Dogwatcher]

Why don't they play some 2nd XI cricket during January period to bridge this gap of those not playing BBL?

I also don't understand why the BBL goes so long, they need to have more double headers (esp 26/12 - 5/1 period) and reduce the comp by at least a week, then you wouldn't have the farcical situation of the international BBL games crossing over the BBL finals.

BBL is only going to get longer.

[The Bedge]

Chadd Sayers wants Australia Test cricket selection snub for South Africa explained

A disappointed Chadd Sayers has asked for clarity from selectors after he was left out of Australia's squad for March's four-Test tour of South Africa.

Sayers formed a part of Australia's squad as a reserve for the opening Tests of the Ashes, and has led the Sheffield Shield for wickets over the past season and a half with 79 scalps.

However, his name was missing from the 15-man squad named for the South African series on Monday, with 21-year-old Jhye Richardson instead selected alongside Jackson Bird as a back-up quick.

"I'm just disappointed and just want some clarity," 30-year-old Sayers told Adelaide radio station 5AA just hours after the selection news.

"I'd like to know where I stand in Cricket Australia's eyes and where I can get in their side. It's quite hard to take at the moment."

Sayers said he was also frustrated by the fact he had not received a call from Australian selectors to notify him of the decision.

However, he said he had since called chairman of selectors Trevor Hohns to seek answers himself, and was waiting for a return phone call at the time of the interview.

"I guess that's one of the disappointing things, that I haven't had a phone call to actually find out why I was left out," he said.

"It would be nice to know … get some clarity on how Jhye Richardson, who has only played five Shield games, was picked ahead of me.

"To not be touring with that squad and for a young kid to come in, I'm back in the pecking order now."

Sayers accepted that he would have only played if one of Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins or Jackson Bird had gone down injured, but believed he would have been effective on South Africa's pace-friendly wickets.

"I thought South Africa would have been perfect for my bowling with the conditions over there," he said.

"You watch Vernon Philander go about his business as he does, he takes a lot of wickets in South African conditions."

Hohns admitted Sayers had been unlucky at the naming of the squad, but put him in the same category as Bird while Richardson provided a back-up out-and-out quick option.

"Chadd is performing well as he always does but with Jackson Bird there he has the jump on Chadd at the moment," Hohns said.

"We have him, Josh Hazlewood is a well-renowned seam bowler then we have the good pace of Starc, Cummins and Jhye Richardson."

[tigerpie]

How long since he's played a game. Is he playing t20?
Reward for effort, all the selectors roll with that one.
Not seeing any reward for sayers. Shabby treatment and I expect a lot better from the chairman of selectors.

No mate, played district cricket on the weekend.

Therein lies the thing many of us knock about the BBL, the dearth of first class red ball cricket for our domestic cricketers from mid December to early February.

How was he not picked up for t20?

[mighty_tiger_79]

How is Bird ahead of Sayers?

[Jim05]

How is Bird ahead of Sayers?

Alphabetically

[robranisgod]

I blame Langer, the selectors just do whatever he suggests. He's obviously told them this kid will be good & they put him front of line.

I think there only taking Richardson as experience, id hope if there was an injury to the big 3 Sayers would be on the plane & in front of the kid to play just behind Bird.

That's the only way it can be logical IMO

Did you notice that the other WA brown nose, Michael Hussey, talked up RIchardson being part of the team last week. We need Gillespie to play the same role as Langer and Hussey do for us to get some test players. Gillespie should be talking up the SA test prospects at every opportunity.

If Wightman gets fit he will surpass Carey in the pecking order such is the power of WA on selection.

I have said it before but WA have had a dream run in the test team since the days of Lawrie Sawle as test selector. Sure they have had some champs but they have had a hell of a lot of duds play test cricket in the last 30 odd years.

[Eagles2014]

Heard Brett Geeves wrote a good piece on Sayers missing out, anyone clever enough to post it on here??

[The Bedge]

Heard Brett Geeves wrote a good piece on Sayers missing out, anyone clever enough to post it on here??

https://www.foxsports.com.au/cricket/br ... 91e1115d8c

[The Bedge]

Brett Geeves: Sadly, Chadd Sayers just ain’t one of ‘da boiz’, phone call snub no surprise

IT is November 23, 2016.

You are Chadd Sayers.

You’ve taken 180 wickets across 47 Sheffield Shield games and your home patch, the Adelaide Oval, is where you train under the watchful eye of the Australian Test match selectors, coaches and players.

Nervous? Tomorrow is day one of a Test match and you are the clear frontrunner to play.

Sure, you are nervous, but your routine, sound technique and cunning knack for taking wickets has your net session continually hitting that dime — top of off stump — with the ball talking a language that very few can speak.

Swing: it’s your thing.

It is you or Jackson Bird. And you’d imagine going largely in your favour is the fact that the last time you both played at the Adelaide Oval — SA v TAS — you took 11 wickets and Bird took two for the game.

BORDER: Selectors can’t call everyone who has missed out

As the realisation that a dream Test match debut against South Africa — under the artificial lighting that has seen you mesmerise opposition teams with your foreign swing bowling language — sweeps over you, it’s the anticipation of folklore that keeps the uncertainty in your mind company.

You see, there is a longstanding tradition created by the great Steve Waugh, that when you have been selected to represent Australia in a Test match for the first time, Steve himself sends you a text message.

Such is the secrecy surrounding this very message, not even the known media snitches of Australian cricket will feed through its contents.

To provide some context; this would be like waking up on Christmas morning to a handwritten letter from Santa with an attached photo of him licking your cheek, while you sleep, as proof of his existence.

Can you imagine receiving that text from Australia’s most revered cricketing leader?

Time would stand still as your life’s work flashes before you.

What sometimes gets left behind is the understanding that a moment like this, national representation, is a lifetime of work being rewarded.

Perhaps more importantly, it’s not just you that gets the reward; it’s the taxi service of your parents. Their devotion to your improvement as a human and as a cricketer is both a financial drain — cricket ain’t cheap — and an emotional rollercoaster.

They feel the hurt of every boundary, every dropped catch and the pain of every injury.

Their unwavering love and support is what provides the safety net for your success. Knowing that if you fall, there will be someone to catch you is the most important ingredient to the required selfishness for the individual chase of sporting excellence.

It is your friends too. They’ve seen and respect your toil through the missed celebrations of life’s milestones: 18ths, 21st’s, weddings, parties, anything.

Yet sometimes it’s the simple things like your omission from a day at the beach or a weekend of golf that hurt them, and you, the most.

So, when you, Chadd Sayers, receive that text message from Steve Waugh welcoming you into the brethren of Australian Test match elite, it supersedes any of the remarkable events that have taken place in your life to become the number one memory.

Your life’s work, sacrifices and pain are being rewarded through selection in a dream Test match debut in front of that very support network of love who carried you there.

Acceptance from the cricket fraternity, and its leader, that it’s you that will join them as a forever piece of the Australian cricket jigsaw.

That the Baggy Green, the one you’ve played out in the backyard a million times over, will be yours.

This is the single greatest moment of your life and one that should be immediately shared with your parents, siblings, friends and anyone who will listen.

They can’t take this anyway from you. Can they? Not now!!??

Could life get any better?

Chadd Sayers came as close to a Test match debut as receiving confirmation that folklore was in fact a reality: The Steve Waugh message was real.

Cricket’s history tells us that Jackson Bird played in that Test match and that Sayers mixed the Kool-Aid.

What happened on November 23 that saw Sayers go from so firmly entrenched in the team that Steve Waugh would be entrusted with delivering the message of acceptance, to being left out of the team altogether?

How did it go from the overwhelming joy of November 23 for Chadd and his support network of love, to yesterday finding out he was dropped from the Test squad for South Africa by way of a social media platform?

How is it possible that not one member of the National Selection Panel (NSP) the Australian coaching panel, nor the captain himself, could not reach out to Sayers to deliver the bad news before releasing it to the media?

How is it possible that this string of events could happen to one man?

Sadly, Chadd just ain’t one of ‘da boiz’.

He’s not tall enough. Not fast enough. Not networked with the right people. Not pretty enough. Maybe wears the wrong brands? Doesn’t shave enough?

Not even cool enough to be contacted about his omission.

Please, take a knee for Chadd Sayers. He deserves all of your positive energy; no one should have to experience this level of disrespect.

It’s not right.

Perhaps saddest of all for the welfare of professional cricketers in this country: you’re not surprised, are you?

[am Bays]

Heard Brett Geeves wrote a good piece on Sayers missing out, anyone clever enough to post it on here??

Geeves simply went find: "batsman" and "Cowan" and then replace with "bowler" and Sayers" , then hit enter and then pressed submit.

Writes the same dribble basically every article.

Like his bowling his articles are cannon fodder

[Booney]

Heard Brett Geeves wrote a good piece on Sayers missing out, anyone clever enough to post it on here??

Geeves simply went find: "batsman" and "Cowan" and then replace with "bowler" and Sayers" , then hit enter and then pressed submit.

Writes the same dribble basically every article.

Like his bowling his articles are cannon fodder

Can't agree with you here, really enjoy his pieces and it would piss the snobs at CA off immensely, making them all the more entertaining.

He writes what Joe Average thinks, not what Sutherland and his cronies think he should.

[am Bays]

Heard Brett Geeves wrote a good piece on Sayers missing out, anyone clever enough to post it on here??

Geeves simply went find: "batsman" and "Cowan" and then replace with "bowler" and Sayers" , then hit enter and then pressed submit.

Writes the same dribble basically every article.

Like his bowling his articles are cannon fodder

Can't agree with you here, really enjoy his pieces and it would piss the snobs at CA off immensely, making them all the more entertaining.

He writes what Joe Average thinks, not what Sutherland and his cronies think he should.

I thinks he's fox sports crickets version of Kane Cornes, puts out an article that's controversial which is journalistic burley to the click bait population that we have become. it's easy to write articles that criticise selections or city hall as it's basically what we have been doing in pubs and print media since Fred Spofforth said F*** You I'm not playing as you haven't picked Billy Murdoch in March 1877

[Dutchy]

Why don't they play some 2nd XI cricket during January period to bridge this gap of those not playing BBL?

I also don't understand why the BBL goes so long, they need to have more double headers (esp 26/12 - 5/1 period) and reduce the comp by at least a week, then you wouldn't have the farcical situation of the international BBL games crossing over the BBL finals.

BBL is only going to get longer.

You miss my point, I know its not going to get smaller, but put it over a shorter period. There is no reason why these teams can't play 3-4 games per week, some are going a week without a game, if you follow the IPL they regularly play 2 games per day.

Im guessing its a TV thing as CH10 want a game every night for nearly 50 days, but something has to give.

[Dutchy]

Look at the Melbourne Renegades, before last nights game they had played 6 games in 33 days since the comp started, avergae of 1 game ever 5.5 days.

Sydney Thunder since 14/1 to end of comp 27/1 play 2 games in 2 weeks.

brisbane Heat currently have 9 days between games.

[Dutchy]

Heard Brett Geeves wrote a good piece on Sayers missing out, anyone clever enough to post it on here??

Geeves simply went find: "batsman" and "Cowan" and then replace with "bowler" and Sayers" , then hit enter and then pressed submit.

Writes the same dribble basically every article.

Like his bowling his articles are cannon fodder

Can't agree with you here, really enjoy his pieces and it would piss the snobs at CA off immensely, making them all the more entertaining.

He writes what Joe Average thinks, not what Sutherland and his cronies think he should.

I thinks he's fox sports crickets version of Kane Cornes, puts out an article that's controversial which is journalistic burley to the click bait population that we have become. it's easy to write articles that criticise selections or city hall as it's basically what we have been doing in pubs and print media since Fred Spofforth said F*** You I'm not playing as you haven't picked Billy Murdoch in March 1877

Surely you can't dispute that Chadd should have been treated with enough respect to receive a phone call from the NSP, thats essentially what the article is about. He was 12/13th man a month ago, now can't make a 15 man squad.