Australia to appoint more contemporary cricketers as national selectors post Greg Chappell's exit
As Australia's current selection panel’s tenure comes to an end after the Ashes, they are set to overhaul the entire selection panel over the next six months. The change is about to be brought up, keeping the upcoming T20 World Cup in mind, as selections will need some fresh perspectives.
Cricket Australia selector and national talent manager Greg Chappell is expected to retire from his dual role following the end of the Ashes tour of England, which ended an era in Australian cricket for his long and eventful involvement with the governing body. His involvement with Cricket Australia stretched over more than 30 years since his retirement from playing in 1984, although he served India as head coach in between for a couple of years.
In the wake of it, Cricket Australia have decided to overhaul the entire selection panel over the next six months, so as to bring about a generational change to better reflect the Twenty20 era the game. The likes of Cameron White and Michael Klinger have been raised as possible selectors for their experience in the shortest version of the game.Â
"Certainly we need to take into account the sorts of experience that are required. If you look at the shape of the panel now, one of the things we'd like to have more of in the future is more experience in T20 games as an example. So rather than targeting an individual person, it's really about determining what are the characteristics or capabilities we need among the panel and who are the people in Australian cricket who can fulfil those,” Kevin Roberts, the Cricket Australia chief executive, said, reported Cricinfo.
"I think it's knowledge of the T20 game, whether it be playing, coaching, and various other roles in the T20 game. So I probably wouldn't describe it as generational change but I would absolutely say it is a matter of having a really deep knowledge of T20 cricket. A lot of Australians have been involved in the IPL and the BBL as well and some of those are young, some are not so young. Really it's about the experience they've had as opposed to when they might've been born,” he added.
After Australia retained the Ashes, Australian cricket’s major course of action will be to win the Twenty20 World Cup on home soil in 2020, while maintaining a high standard in their bid to win the first World Test Championship final in 2021. On being asked the role played by Justin Langer and Tim Paine, Roberts said that no other figure in Australian cricket could have led the team through the troubled times of 2018.
"I don't think there's another leader in Australian men's cricket that could've done the job that he's done over the last 18 months. I also think he's only been able to do that job because if you think about his challenges over the years he was almost out of the game for a number of years with a smashed finger. He gained some life experience during that time that's really set him up to be the leader that he is and without that I'm not sure he could've done it the way that he has.
"We've just been so happy with the way he's led from the front and there's no thought of succession planning at this stage. He's got our support to continue leading from the front the way that he has done so far. We couldn't be happier with the performance of Justin or Tim in terms of the cultural transformation of the men's team and what that's contributed to Australian cricket more broadly."