George Bailey to be named Australian T20 Captain

[Tassieboy]

In an unfathomable decision the injured Tasmanian skipper, who had a poor Big Bash tournament, will take over from dumped Melbourne Stars teammate Cameron White.

Read more: http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sp...-bash-tournament/story-fn67wv6z-1226250749869

I'm a Launcestonian, too, but what on earth is going on? Yes he's a good captain - significantly better than Doherty - but he is an ordinary T20 player. Obviously we're taking T20 as a joke. Maybe that's not necessarily a bad thing?

 

[CHIEF SMACKAHOE]

good to see we treat t20s with the respect they deserve

 

[JUBJUB]

White had to go but is Baileys form any better ?
Maybe someone like Dussey would be a better choice.

 

[aussie1st]

At least keeping White would have 1% sense in it, picking Bailey has 0%. This is not a good sign for our selectors, once you start making a stupid decision, it keeps piling on and next thing you know Steven Smith is captaining the Test side.

 

[The Passenger]

it would be a long long time since a guy has captained australia in their first match for the country.

 

[Easty]

This will surely be the first time (inaugural games aside) that a bloke will debut for his country as captain. Absolute idiocy.

EDIT: Ninja'd, but look at this for their reason behind not giving the job to Warner.

David Warner is considered a future captain but there is a feeling the 25-year-old needs to establish himself as an international cricketer first.

- Bloke needs to establish himself as international cricketer.
- Give captaincy to a first gamer instead.

God I hope it's a troll.

 

[ManWithNoName]

Ya'll be playin', right?

 

[Cousin Jed]

I'm not sure someone who is openly going around suggesting Dan Christian must be picked can be calling selectors decisions unfathomable.

But yes, it is hard to understand the logic.

 

[aussierulesrules]

Wow. I thought it might have been a joke, or just a fanciful idea that would quickly be quashed by sense, but it seems it's a done deal.
It could be a masterstroke, but it sounds like one of the biggest jokes I've heard in a long, long time.
I was thinking about starting this as a stand alone thread a couple of days ago, when I first read that Bailey was tipped to take over, but put it in the T20 World Cup thread, as I doubted it would happen, but I may as well post it again here now, as it's still relevant:
They're saying in the papers today that Cameron White is set to be dumped from the T20 captaincy, which is no great surprise, but the one they're suggesting is tipped to replace him is.
They're tipping that George Bailey will take over, which is a huge WTF moment for me.
I mean White has had a terrible tournament so far, but Bailey has also been one of the bigger disappointments of the BBL so far, making just 110 runs from 96 balls, at 22 (now 114 at 19 and strike rate of 110), with a highest score of 33. And it's not like he hasn't had any chances to make runs, because with the Stars going so poorly, early on, he had ample opportunities to stake his claims on the national side with some big scores (and has since failed again, in the final, making just 2).
If you want to dump someone from the national captaincy who's made the highest score in Australia's last T20 and their 2nd highest in the two previous matches (White), you'd better be replacing them with someone who is absolutely demanding a spot in the side, with their fantastic performances, but if he gets replaced by someone who has an inferior T20 record in basically all regards, and has made just 110 from 96 balls at 22 in this tournament, it would be an insult. It's also hard to see how that would really benefit the national team, as it looks like it would be a sideways step to me, not a step forward. You'd be replacing one who is not in good form with someone else who is also not in good form and who is actually older than him and who has far, far less T20 experience! What the hell's the point?
In no way, shape, or form is Bailey demanding a spot in the national T20 side with his performances, when you consider the likes of Birt, Finch and Quiney (who have also not been in the side) have made 334, 259 and 235 in the same tournament, at much faster strike rates. Then you've got Christian who's made 50% more runs for the tournament, at a much faster strike rate and who also brings bowling to the table, as does Andrew McDonald, who has also had a much better tournament with the bat than Bailey and has good captaincy experience (leading Leicestershire at times in the English T20 comp last year- where he also made over 600 runs and won the t20 Player of the Year award for the whole comp).

Add in the fact that Bailey is coming off a shoulder reco, which requires that he throw left handed (and that White is one of the best going around in the field) and the fact that White has actually started to look a lot better in the past couple of matches (started to middle the ball again and hit a couple of big sixes, which he didn't even look close to doing earlier in the tournament and also made a quick 84 not out in club cricket on Sat, before his Big Bash game in Perth that night) and it looks like an even crazier decision.

But if they didn't want White to do it, which is fair enough, as he has struggled in all forms for 12 months now, they could have at least given it to someone in the team who is actually getting a game on their merits. Now we've got someone in the team, who, if it wasn't for their captaincy, wouldn't be anywhere near the team right now!

 

[stmookeyj]

Does anyone really care about the upcoming 2 matches? I mean, CA will probably try to promote the hell out of the Sydney game because it's played at the Olympic Stadium (which as a cricket venue makes some of the grounds in the sub continent look like the MCG) but still. Name anyone you like as a captain, not too many will really take too much notice.


On another point regarding Bailey, I've just read the February issue of Inside Sport and in particular an article written by his former Taswegian teammate Mr Geeves. He wasn't too complimentary of his (or for that matter Virender Sehwag, a possible Indian skipper for the test and perhaps a white ball game or 2) style of captaincy. Sounds to me Bailey's an ultra conservative skipper.

 

[2222 Richie B]

Before the big bash, i would have been all for it. His move to Melbourne didn't exactly help his figures though. Oh well - we could do worse.

 

[Belnakor]

Do you think they just pulled some names of out a hat?

 

[dan warna]

Bailey is seen as more marketable and more in tune with CA's wishes.

White had the audacity to question some of the BB issues and had a thinly veiled criticism of CA.

That said White showed no form during BB despite running into a bit of form in the international T20 games.

I suspect that is why Pup is a popular captain as is Haddin a popular keeper with CA. They are 'company men'.

Border's rebellion of the ACB in defending his team, his players and his selection policy would be interesting today. Can you imagine CA putting up with border protecting Marsh, S.waugh, Dean Jones, Warne and Boonie today?

Its all about the branding and the advertising. company advertising would be furious if the players that fronted up for the commercials were relegated to district cricket.

This added to the longevity of some players in the past and currently.

 

[Bugz]

White was dropped because he is the single most overrated player in Australia...Cannot believe some called for his test inclusion.

Not sure about Baileys selection, I think it may be yet another case of Tim Paine being unavailable. I guess he and Haddin can now be thankful.

 

[Kram]

Oh eddiesmith is going to like this.

Seriously though, he shouldn't even be anywhere near the national side.

 

[ajdude]

what time's the squad being announced?

 

[aussierulesrules]

Bailey is seen as more marketable and more in tune with CA's wishes.

White had the audacity to question some of the BB issues and had a thinly veiled criticism of CA.

That said White showed no form during BB despite running into a bit of form in the international T20 games.

I suspect that is why Pup is a popular captain as is Haddin a popular keeper with CA. They are 'company men'.

Border's rebellion of the ACB in defending his team, his players and his selection policy would be interesting today. Can you imagine CA putting up with border protecting Marsh, S.waugh, Dean Jones, Warne and Boonie today?

Its all about the branding and the advertising. company advertising would be furious if the players that fronted up for the commercials were relegated to district cricket.

This added to the longevity of some players in the past and currently.

Looks like you're probably right. They've gotten themselves a "yes-man". Yay.

http://www.smh.com.au/sport/cricket...-step-in-whites-direction-20120122-1qc95.html

Does anyone really care about the upcoming 2 matches? I mean, CA will probably try to promote the hell out of the Sydney game because it's played at the Olympic Stadium (which as a cricket venue makes some of the grounds in the sub continent look like the MCG) but still. Name anyone you like as a captain, not too many will really take too much notice.

I'd say the 65,000 they're expecting at Olympic Stadium and the 75,000 they'll be hoping come to the MCG (plus the millions that will watch on TV) will be taking some notice.
And it looks like CA certainly care about this format:
"Australia are ranked fifth in the world in the International Cricket Council Twenty20 rankings eight months after the world championship event, and with CA general manager Pat Howard's ambitious new regime aiming to be No.1 in all three formats, these two matches are far from simply a revenue-raising novelty for the CA hierarchy."

 

[The Passenger]

don't know about bailey being a yes man... he had a massive go at the selectors last year.

 

[aussierulesrules]

That's true! So this makes even less sense now. I guess if it was this current batch selecting the side then they wouldn't select him in fit.

 

[Chris25]

So what have we got to look forward to this afternoon?

Warner, S Marsh, M Marsh, M Hussey, D Hussey, Bailey, Wade, Christian, Smith, Lee, Starc, McDermott and Doherty/O'Keefe.

And maybe Birt or another quick thrown in too. Eh.

 

[eddiesmith]

Wow, an all time low for Cricket Australia and to think some idiots thought things would be better under the new regime

It is truly hard to see what Bailey has over White or even why White is being dropped? Yes he has had a bad summer domestically, but his international form is no issue, he finally snapped out of his form loss and they drop him? Insane

Yet to drop him for the worst player they could pick in Bailey is hard to understand, there would have to be about 40 other batsmen deserving of a spot in the side and his form was no better than Whites, yet White has the runs on the board Internationally. Whats even more amazing is he is the worst performing batsman in Australia under pressure, I doubt anyone has a worse record in domestic finals, he has never made a run in a Shield, One Day or T20 final

Lets hope the MCG make the 2nd T20 what Hobart did for the Stars game.

Boo George Bailey Day

 

[The Falcon Strike]

I'm just thankful I don't have much interest in international T20

The main interest I have is Hoggy getting a call-up which won't happed as he will be over-qualified for the job.

 

[Carbine Chaos]

Bailey is seen as more marketable and more in tune with CA's wishes.

I see no way in which an average player like Bailey is in any way marketable.

 

[aussierulesrules]

White was dropped because he is the single most overrated player in Australia...Cannot believe some called for his test inclusion.

Not sure about Baileys selection,

So you're not sure about whether someone who has an inferior record at domestic level (in one day and T20 matches) than White has at international level is a good selection, especially considering Bailey is also injured at the moment, has less than half the T20 experience White has and is also in poor form at the moment?
And White can't be that bad if 12 months ago he'd made over 1000 runs in the previous 12 month period for Australia in ODI's, second only to Watson in that time for Australia.
He's also hit the 3rd most sixes of anyone in international T20 matches and his average of 31 and strike rate of 140 are also perfectly good. He's ranked 9th in the world for his T20 international average, of those who have played 20 innings. Chris Gale, for instance, averages only 1 run per innings more than White at international T20 level and Warner (from the exact same number of games) averages 5 less than White. Actually, Shane Watson only averages 26, AB De Villiers 23, Sehwag 24, Gilchrist 22, Afridi 18 and Sanath Jayasuria only averaged 23, compared to White's 31. So yes, he clearly is terrible and must be replaced by someone who has not played international cricket before, is older than him and is currently injured and in poor form, having just failed dismally in a must-win final!
White's clearly been out of form (in all formats) in the past 12 months (although he top scored for Australia in their last T20i and got our second top score for the two before that), but judging him solely on that form would have been like those who judged Hilfenhaus or Siddle on how they were going last summer, for instance. The same ones who were saying how shit they were at that time are probably awfully quiet now, or maybe they haven't learned anything and are now the ones saying how shit White is, without realising that maybe, just maybe, it's more a form thing.
Considering how few seem to rate White, in spite of his good record for much of his time for Australia, I find it hard to imagine how he could be "the single most overrated player in Australia".

 

[Cousin Jed]

Bailey (c), Warner (vc), Birt, Christian, Doherty, Faulkner, Finch, Hogg, D.Hussey, Lee, M.Marsh, S.Marsh, Mckay, Wade