Ian Chappell: Give youth a chance — think Ricky Pointing and Don Bradman
Young talent must be given its chance in Australia’s Test team if our national side is to thrive, writes Ian Chappell.
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Outstanding young Victorian batsman Will Pucovski must be a prime candidate for the “If it wasn’t for bad luck, he’d have no luck at all” award.
He’s suffered multiple concussions in a variety of situations but his latest — a tumble when his bat stuck in the turf while running between wickets — epitomises his predilection for unlikely accidents.
Pucovski’s misfortune is one shared by Australian cricket. Apart from the fact that it’s further delayed a much-anticipated Test debut, it could also hinder his prospects as a potential future Australian captain.
In response to Michael Hussey’s Test debut at age 30, former skipper Allan Border stated; “We have to get used to 28-year-old debutants.”
My immediate thought was: “That’s a load of codswallop.”
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The occasional appearance of an “ageing first-timer” is okay but Australia requires a regular infusion of ultra young debutants for many good reasons.
The first being it reinvigorates the older players in the team. Young legs sprinting around the field and then engaging in dressing-room frivolity tends to lift the spirit of a team.
Secondly, when the public hear reports about this “great young prospect”, there’s an incentive to go to the ground to see him and make up their own mind about the talent level.
And last but far from least, the talented young players are the potential future Australian captains.
In the case of Ricky Ponting and Steve Smith, they made their debut at around the time of their 21st birthday. Apart from selection being a wonderful present, it also meant they had the time to recover if they were dropped — and to then come back as a mentally stronger and more determined player.
By the time the Ponting- and Smith-type debutant reaches 27 — about the right age to be awarded the captaincy — they are mature cricketers with loads of experience and are ready for a leadership role.
Their experiences, both in good times and in adversity, generate valuable lessons to be passed on to the next generation.
That’s in contrast to those who make their debut in their late twenties. Once they’re dropped during a lean trot, the selectors tend to move on and look for younger talent.
If selectors have a choice of two players of equal ability, one aged 20 and the other a decade older, the younger cricketer should be preferred on the basis of greater upside.
That is unless — until recently — you played for England.
When in trouble, England always used to opt for the older, more experienced player. Consequently in 1956 they resurrected two players in Denis Compton (38) and Cyril Washbrook (41) to take on Australia. Then in 1974-75, Colin Cowdrey displayed his masochistic side by agreeing to fly out of an English winter and confront Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thomson at their fiercest, on a bouncy Perth pitch, at the grand old age of 41.
The stark difference in selection policy was brought home to me by an irate MCC member at Lord’s in 1993.
As 21-year-old Damien Martyn was flaying the England attack in a dead rubber ODI while his English counterpart Mark Lathwell languished on the bench, the frustrated member asked: “How come you Australians keep producing talented young batsmen?”
“Because we play them,” I responded.
The injection of youth was a common theme throughout Australian cricket history until in recent years the game became fully professional. Now players tend to drag out their career in order to continue earning a comfortable living.
Gone is the automatic culling system where players retired when their hopes of representing Australia had receded and they needed to get on and earn a living.
The bulk of the batsmen I played with in the Australian side made their Shield debut as teenagers. Doug Walters then made the Test side just prior to his 20th birthday and rewarded the selectors with centuries in his first two games.
At the height of Australia’s youth talent push, Don Bradman (20), Archie Jackson and Stan McCabe (both 19) made their debuts in 1928, 1929 and 1930, respectively. Bradman went on to hint at what was to follow by scoring a century in just his fourth Test innings.
He was upstaged by the precocious talent of Jackson, who played with great artistry to score 164 on debut. Sadly, he died just four years later from tuberculosis.
The message is loud and clear: give youth a chance — you never know what glorious surprises they have in store. If you’re lucky, they might even turn out to be captaincy material.
Originally published as Ian Chappell: Give youth a chance — think Ricky Pointing and Don Bradman