India vs Australia | Cricket Australia is in the business of entertainment, says Simon Katich

The Indian team are on the brink of registering a landmark series win on Australian soil for the first time in the history of both nations. This sums up the miserable state of the once revered Australian cricket team who have had a rather forgetful 2018 which saw star players Steven Smith and David Warner get banned for their respective roles in the ball-tampering saga.

Prior to the ‘Sandpapergate’ incident, a review of Cricket Australia revealed the major flaws in the governing body and its unhealthy culture of ‘ winning at all costs’. Former Australian cricketer, Simon Katich, spoke about the discrepancies with the system employed at CA in a recent interview with Channel 7.

“Since 2007, 58 baggy greens have been handed out, and that’s extraordinary numbers, considering in the previous seven years, there was only 15, That in itself is saying that something is not right either with chopping and changes the team or with the system below. The system below used to produce guys ready to play Test cricket, and if someone was the wrong selection, then someone else would get an opportunity and then they would grab that opportunity. That’s a huge amount of new players for that period of time for it consistently to be the wrong player being selected.”

“Is Cricket Australia all about cricket, as it used to be, or is it just about entertainment? Are they in the business of entertainment? I would say they’re in the business of entertainment, not cricket. Young Marnus Labuschagne as an example, averaging 33 coming into this Test, nothing against him, but he would not have even got a look in 20 years ago in playing for Australia. He would have been struggling to keep his Shield spot,” Katich told Channel 7.

The former batsman also offered the examples of Aaron Finch and Travis Head for the same who have so far struggled in the ongoing Test series against India on home soil. 

“I’ve said that in previous weeks about Aaron Finch, Travis Head and all these guys, it’s nothing against them, but this is the system that is setting some of these guys up to fail. Cricket Australia haven’t done anything about it. They can’t do it immediately but at the same time, look at the schedule.

"Has Aaron Finch had the best opportunity to open the batting for Australia in this series? No because he doesn’t do it for Victoria, he doesn’t do it for Surrey, and guess what, he plays one Shield game before a big series against a very good attack," Katich concluded.

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