I was flicking through BBC teletext last night and thinking about England's almost seemingly random selection of some players, like they've been picked out of a hat or something.
I wondered if there couldn't be a structure in place, for England and other countries maybe as well, whereby the selectors have to recognise the domestic achievements of players with selection.
Basically the idea is you set an age group of say 19-25 and the national side has to pick the best batsman, bowler and all-rounder in their squad that meets the qualifying standards. I'd probably do it over two years, the all-rounder might need to have a conversion of wickets to run equivalents like fantasy cricket gave 20 points for wickets to one point per run.
This would reward players who have been the best in the category, if England pick that player (on merit/other reason) anyway then they don't necessarily have to pick the second best, but can. It might mean squads have to be slightly bigger, but at least England won't keep picking blasts from the past or one cap wonders, or reverting to one of their own who's come back from injury but done nothing to merit reselection.
Of course this is only the seedling of an idea, the age limit hitting the target rather than just seeing someone over 30 doing well in the domestic cups or something and picking them. In truth England should have a very similar system already, but somehow when I see Tremlett and Carberry plucked out of thin air.
Carberry has a decent 47.10 average in the CB40, Luke Wright has a better average as does Hildreth, Kieswetter, Bairstow, Patel, Davies, Muchall, Key, and others that without checking I can't be 100% sure are English qualified, but the point is why is he being picked now? Looking at the two balls he faced in the other ODI his technique looks like he's a wicket in waiting, his (lack of) foot movement would make any bowler of any description. A carved, but fairly leaden footed shot for four followed by out. How he got a Test call up I don't know.
Anyway, rather than focus on individual selections, and I'm sure Tremlett has worse than very average figures this season, I'll return to the idea that selectors should have to pick players who are top of that age group in the averages/points table (all-rounders) over a fixed period of probably the previous season and current, maybe a bit longer. Maybe a minimum requirement be set of X runs/wickets or Y average, but essentially if they are mixing it with the foreign mercenaries and county old hands, pick them.
I wondered if there couldn't be a structure in place, for England and other countries maybe as well, whereby the selectors have to recognise the domestic achievements of players with selection.
Basically the idea is you set an age group of say 19-25 and the national side has to pick the best batsman, bowler and all-rounder in their squad that meets the qualifying standards. I'd probably do it over two years, the all-rounder might need to have a conversion of wickets to run equivalents like fantasy cricket gave 20 points for wickets to one point per run.
This would reward players who have been the best in the category, if England pick that player (on merit/other reason) anyway then they don't necessarily have to pick the second best, but can. It might mean squads have to be slightly bigger, but at least England won't keep picking blasts from the past or one cap wonders, or reverting to one of their own who's come back from injury but done nothing to merit reselection.
Of course this is only the seedling of an idea, the age limit hitting the target rather than just seeing someone over 30 doing well in the domestic cups or something and picking them. In truth England should have a very similar system already, but somehow when I see Tremlett and Carberry plucked out of thin air.
Carberry has a decent 47.10 average in the CB40, Luke Wright has a better average as does Hildreth, Kieswetter, Bairstow, Patel, Davies, Muchall, Key, and others that without checking I can't be 100% sure are English qualified, but the point is why is he being picked now? Looking at the two balls he faced in the other ODI his technique looks like he's a wicket in waiting, his (lack of) foot movement would make any bowler of any description. A carved, but fairly leaden footed shot for four followed by out. How he got a Test call up I don't know.
Anyway, rather than focus on individual selections, and I'm sure Tremlett has worse than very average figures this season, I'll return to the idea that selectors should have to pick players who are top of that age group in the averages/points table (all-rounders) over a fixed period of probably the previous season and current, maybe a bit longer. Maybe a minimum requirement be set of X runs/wickets or Y average, but essentially if they are mixing it with the foreign mercenaries and county old hands, pick them.
