Hohns ‘Aint Where the Heart Is
Back in 2005 the then Australian Chairman of Selectors, Trevor Hohns said, the age of the team was "irrelevant, particularly in Test cricket."
Based on his performance as the Chairman of Selectors he really did believe this statement.
Because under his reign virtually all semblance of looking to the future by developing youth went out the door while Australia gorged on opponent after opponent primarily on the back of a handfull of several once in a generation players, Ponting, Gilchrist, Warne and McGrath.
Now that those players are gone the cupboard is bare, Australia is the fifth best Test nation in the world, which is last based on the Test nations Australia would have considered peers over the last century.
We should have a forensic look at the players tried during Hohns time as the boss of the selectors.
During Hohns time at the top these were the players chosen to debut for Australia.
From this list of players those still playing as of the fifth Ashes Test in Sydney in 2011 are Clarke, Hussey and Watson. An out of form batsman struggling to fulfill his potential, a veteran close to retirement who is hanging on to avoid retirement and an all rounder who for some reason is opening the batting. Not one bowler from the Hohns era has made a long term impact circa 2011.
You see, Hohns was a journeyman as a player, he played in the rebel tours of South Africa and copped a ban from the Australian team until in 1989 at the ripe old age of 35 Hohns got his chance to flip his leggies in anger. Over seven tests Hohns aquited himself well and never played in a loss.
One has to wonder how much of an effect the call up of a 35 year old had on the future selector when he became the kingmaker of Australian cricket.
If you look at his record there is no doubt that he favoured older players (such as he was) for debut and there was little evidence of blooding youngsters in order to discover new champions.
Of the 31 players listed above who made their debut under Hohns 11 (35%) made their debut over the age of 28, while 7 (22%) made their debut before the age of 24, just 3 (10%) before the age of 23.
To put that in perspective, in the pre-Hohns era from 1980 till 1995 the percentage of players debuting after their 28th birthday was 17% (compared to 35% for Hohns), players debuting before their 23rd birthday 29% (compared to 10% under Hohns).
We used to laugh at the Poms when they kept bringing in old veterans to try to bolster their side, it was extra funny at the time because they were not good at the time and trying to improve by using veterans.
Australia fell into the trap of many dominant sporting teams over the years of using the short term solution of 'topping up' the team, rather than using more long term vision and using the strength of the current team to develop talented youngsters.
By constantly topping up the champions eventually retire and you are left with nothing as few if any players have been developed to take over. We can see that with the legacy of Clarke, Hussey and Watson from the Hohns era. A complete rebuild of the team is required now, perhaps if youth had been a focus there would have been several more players available now with Test cricket experience to stop Australia from bottoming out as badly as they are now.
From an article in 2004, http://www.espncricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/143660.html
Timing is such an essential factor in selection. Many players think they were picked too early. Some say they were picked too late ...
I don't think there is any formula in this. It's what you see and I suppose the hardest part is putting in place a decision that might mean that you are leaving a senior player out. And the timing has to be right to introduce a young player. What we're finding in Australia is, though we¹ve got some very good talent coming through, players - especially batsmen - are reaching their peak a little bit later. They are reaching their peak around 28-31, while many years ago it was around 24-26. I don't know why, but they just seem to know the game better by that stage of their lives.
If this really was the philosophy, that somehow batsmen were magically maturing later for no apparent reason the tail was really wagging the dog on the Australian selection panel. To me it sounds like making stuff up to suit your own purposes.
Australia needs a radically different outlook even in the current selection panel because nothing really has changed since Hohns left, the philosophies remain the same. If the blinkers remain on, things will get worse before they get better, hard decisions have to be a made and a genuine rebuild of the team is needed, no more topping up.