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[FattusCattus]

Wahey! Have you seen the pic on the front of Cricinfo?  Lehman having a net - possible call up .

I'm sure it's the angle of the photo, but he looks like he getting about as much into line as I do!

(Mind you, he looks about as round as I do!)

[Leddster138]

Scott Styris is currently having a rant about Aussies hiding behind T20 as an excuse for Ashes failures when Rogers, Khawaja, Hughes, Cowan, Agar, Pattinson, Siddle and Bird barely play

[Alvaro]

Add Clarke to that list...

[golden duck]

Wahey! Have you seen the pic on the front of Cricinfo?  Lehman having a net - possible call up .

I'm sure it's the angle of the photo, but he looks like he getting about as much into line as I do!

(Mind you, he looks about as round as I do!)

Who's kit has he 'borrowed'  though?

[stevat]

There's some merit in the T20 thing though.  Not because of current players or anything like that, but more because the kind of player that's coming through these days are all about scoring quickly, hitting big etc.  The limpet like nurdler is fast becoming a thing of the past.  Savvy bowlers in Test cricket are quids in.  Pujara and Root aside, there's very little in the way of emerging talent in Test cricket that is likely to eclipse the talent's of years gone by.

[morgzy10]

Looks like wades pads and gloves. Not sure about bat.  Possibly cowan

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk 4 Beta

[vividgreen]

To everyone who has an opinion as to why Australian cricket is struggling, this is the answer (read the article from the link below)

http://www.backpagelead.com.au/index.php/cricket/10222-early-retirement-the-root-cause-of-century-crisis

I coach junior cricket and have been frustrated for years with the rotation policies and limitations placed on batsmen and bowlers, so everyone gets a go "so to speak" and no ones feelings are hurt..........

This breeds mediocrity and the kids don't know how to take their game to the next level because they are satisfied and rewarded with sub par performances.

This crazy system where kids are restricted on how many balls they can face before retiring and how many overs they can bowl so everyone in the team gets a bowl, was bought into play by Cricket Australia many years a go to encourage all kids to give cricket a go and provide an equal opportunity for all to participate (in their attempt to make cricket the number 1 sport in Australia). It may sound warm and fuzzy, but it has resulted in the talented cricketers leaving the sport (to AFL) due to a lack of opportunity and frustration at not being able to succeed and has rewarded the mums and dads who want a child minding service for their kids who actually don't want to play cricket.

Kids are not encouraged to excel and bat for long periods of time, whilst bowlers can only bowl minimal overs right up until the age of 17 - this probably explains why the promising fast bowlers we currently have keep breaking down.... their bodies haven't been able to grow strong through good hard junior cricket.

What happened to the good old days, where juniors played no limitation cricket (as per seniors) and every player had to earn his role in the team whether it be an opening batsmen or bowler..... you earnt the respect of your coach and peers alike (cricket was competitive in juniors once upon a time).

This is the crux of the problem and the seeds Cricket Australia planted years ago in junior cricket are starting to bear bad fruit........ as the article mentions, juniors are not conditioned or encouraged to make centuries, so how can they learn the art of batting for a long time when junior cricket discourages it.

i rest my case.......

[Buzz]

the same thing happens in junior cricket here in the UK.

[vividgreen]

the same thing happens in junior cricket here in the UK.

Trust me Buzz, its not as bad. I just got back from a month enjoying your sun (unbelievable) and experienced first hand how your junior system runs and it is no where as severe as ours.
I took my son down to the local club several times to train with the U/11's and had a chat with the coaches and also watch the U/10's play off in a mid week final, so i got a fairly good idea at how the little leagues work.

To give you an idea, Australian U/11's can only bat for 12 balls before retiring and bowl a maximum of 2 overs, so everyone gets a bat and bowl equally. There are no results taken, no league ladder and no finals. Every child must rotate through the positions from 1-11 in the batting and bowling order every week. Things start to change a little by the time they reach U/13's, but i still think its less generous than what your U/11's have.

The rotation policy happens right up until 16-17's which is a joke.....

[junter97]

U11s where I play bat in pairs, getting 4 overs a pair and everyone has to bowl to overs. Bowling restrictions in adult cricket for juniors is ridiculous as well, u19s only being able to bowl 7 overs a spell.

[WalkingWicket37]

Am I right in thinking the bowling restrictions are only for 'fast' bowlers??
To my understanding 'fast' bowlers at junior level are defined by "if a keeper of the same age stands back to their bowling under normal circumstances"
So if I have this right the dibly dobly medium pacers and spinners don't have any restrictions on their bowling.

[junter97]

Am I right in thinking the bowling restrictions are only for 'fast' bowlers??
To my understanding 'fast' bowlers at junior level are defined by "if a keeper of the same age stands back to their bowling under normal circumstances"
So if I have this right the dibly dobly medium pacers and spinners don't have any restrictions on their bowling.

This is correct.

[ajmw89]

The bowling restrictions are there more to prevent injury. A couple of my better bowlers in the team I captain are 15/16, so can only have 5/6 over spells before I have to give them a break.  Bloody annoying when you get 1 of them taking 4 for nothing, and then I have to bring on someone who could release the pressure.

[Vic Nicholas]

Scott Styris is currently having a rant about Aussies hiding behind T20 as an excuse for Ashes failures when Rogers, Khawaja, Hughes, Cowan, Agar, Pattinson, Siddle and Bird barely play

I could handle that criticism coming from a great....but Scott Styris???

The man was a retard.

Maybe Scotty can share with us all his magical match winning performances for the Kiwis in his international career...all one of them.

[Vic Nicholas]

To everyone who has an opinion as to why Australian cricket is struggling, this is the answer (read the article from the link below)

http://www.backpagelead.com.au/index.php/cricket/10222-early-retirement-the-root-cause-of-century-crisis

I coach junior cricket and have been frustrated for years with the rotation policies and limitations placed on batsmen and bowlers, so everyone gets a go "so to speak" and no ones feelings are hurt..........

This breeds mediocrity and the kids don't know how to take their game to the next level because they are satisfied and rewarded with sub par performances.

This crazy system where kids are restricted on how many balls they can face before retiring and how many overs they can bowl so everyone in the team gets a bowl, was bought into play by Cricket Australia many years a go to encourage all kids to give cricket a go and provide an equal opportunity for all to participate (in their attempt to make cricket the number 1 sport in Australia). It may sound warm and fuzzy, but it has resulted in the talented cricketers leaving the sport (to AFL) due to a lack of opportunity and frustration at not being able to succeed and has rewarded the mums and dads who want a child minding service for their kids who actually don't want to play cricket.

Kids are not encouraged to excel and bat for long periods of time, whilst bowlers can only bowl minimal overs right up until the age of 17 - this probably explains why the promising fast bowlers we currently have keep breaking down.... their bodies haven't been able to grow strong through good hard junior cricket.

What happened to the good old days, where juniors played no limitation cricket (as per seniors) and every player had to earn his role in the team whether it be an opening batsmen or bowler..... you earnt the respect of your coach and peers alike (cricket was competitive in juniors once upon a time).

This is the crux of the problem and the seeds Cricket Australia planted years ago in junior cricket are starting to bear bad fruit........ as the article mentions, juniors are not conditioned or encouraged to make centuries, so how can they learn the art of batting for a long time when junior cricket discourages it.

i rest my case.......

When I played u12s, we could bat as long as we want...but we had to retire once we reached 30. It was 25 overs per side.

Under 14s we could bat as long as we wanted, but had to retire at 50. It was 50 overs a side.

Under 16s, there was no retirement. If you were good enough to make 100, then good for you. It was 50 overs a side.

Under 12 bowlers could only bowl 5 overs each.

No over restrictions on bowlers in u14s and u16s.

That was back in the early 80's and it worked well. The current system does not.