Queensland cricket XI who should have played more for Australia
Here is a Queensland cricket XI who should have played more for Australia than they did.
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They say Queenslanders are well balanced - they have a chip on both shoulders.
And when it comes to the selection of some of our national teams, there is no more a passionate judge than a Queensland sporting fan following their respective state teams.
Think back to when the Ella boys replaced Roger Gould and Paul McLean in rugby, or when Australian rugby league coach Terry Fearnley dropped four Queenslanders from a winning Test team - Chris Close, Mark Murray, Greg Dowling and Greg Conescu. Australia then lost the next Test which was minus the Queenslanders by 18-nil.
Another example is in cricket when Queenslanders waged a pick Matt the Bat (Hayden) campaign.
Queenslanders love their own, and below we name a full cricket XI of Queenslanders - plus a 12th man and 13th man - who should have either played more Test cricket, or should have played at least one Test match.
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SAM TRIMBLE
An oldie but a goodie, Sam Trimble was Queensland’s batting mainstay until Greg Chappell moved from South Australia. Blocked by Bill Lawry and Bob Simpson for a time, he was named 12th man in one Test but should have played Test cricket when Lawry and Simpson wanned. Sam was born in Bex Hill, a northern NSW hamlet, and played for South Brisbane.
ROBBIE KERR
Kerr did play two Tests, but in the most unfortunate of circumstances. Having had a couple of booming Sheffield Shield seasons, he was picked when his form was slightly off and at a time when New Zealand great Richard Hadlee was running amok (Hadlee took 9-52 and 15 wickets in Kerr’s debut). For the young generation, no bowler currently playing Test cricket comes remotely close to Hadlee’s greatness - the best recent example is Dale Steyn (South Africa).
MARTIN LOVE
The scorer of more than 11,000 runs for Queensland, the elegant Love had a mini run at Test cricket (five Tests), but he scored a century in his last innings (100 not out v Bangladesh) and never played again. What seemed to harpoon Love’s Test career was a pair in his other outing against Bangladesh. However, he had earlier scored 62 not out, six not out, 0 and 27 against England - hardly a disaster. When you consider the run at Test cricket the likes of Sean Marsh enjoyed, then Love is very, very hardly done by. He played for University of Queensland.
STUART LAW
If Stuart Law was playing today, he’d have 50 Tests under his belt and climbing.
Thank goodness Law played one Test (54 not out against Sri Lanka), but gosh he was good enough to play more. The closest batsman to Greg Chappell in terms of elegance, Law was a big match player who always performed in Sheffield Shield finals for Queensland. He was a Valley first grader at the age of 15.
MATT RENSHAW
While Renshaw is not in the same league as the great Matthew Hayden, his journey is reminding me of Hayden. Like Hayden, he was picked early and did not nail down a position. And like Hayden he has evolved his game to play shots all around the wicket. Renshaw could easily be playing at No. 2 or No. 5 for Australia in tomorrow’s Ashes Test. and one feels his recall is a mere formality. He is a Toombul stalwart who loves playing for the original Bulls.
CHRIS HARTLEY
There has been some hard luck stories befall Queensland sporting men and women, but none can topple wicketkeeper Chris Hartley. At least Stuart Law has one Test cap and Wade Seccombe (see below) an Ashes tour under his belt. That Matthew Wade was preferred over Hartley in the Test cricket arena time and again will remain the greatest sporting selection injustice that this writer has observed. We have picked Hartley as a specialist batsman here because he was good enough with the blade to be picked at No. 6, regardless of his glovework.
ASHLEY NOFFKE
Granted Australia’s fast bowling stocks were loaded during his era, but there was no double Noffke was good enough to play Test cricket. A stump to stump bowler in the Glenn McGrath, Paul Reiffel mould, Noffke may have pushed for Test selection on the 2001 Ashes tour but sustained a tour ending ankle injury. He did have the joy of being capped in short form cricket for his country. The Sunshine Coast product was also an outstanding No. 7 or No. 8 batsman
ANDREW BICHEL
It may seem unusual to put a person who played 19 Tests (58 wickets, average 32, strike rate 57) in this team, but Bichel was good enough to play three times as many Tests. But he was blocked by Brett Lee. I get the Brett Lee argument to a degree. Around Australian bowling trumps of the time - Glenn McGrath, Jason Gillespie and Shane Warne - the captain and selectors liked that speedster Lee could come in and sweep out the tail.
But was Lee really that much better than Bichel? And why after being a World Cup hero in 2003 did Bichel not have his ACB contract renewed in 2004? I think the statistics tell the story here. Bichel took 769 first class wickets at a staggering strike rate of 48.1 per scalp which is even superior to Jeff Thomson’s first class record (675 wickets, 26.46 average, 52.6 strike rate). Bichel was a master of generating late swing and was no green top bully, taking wickets on bland tracks around Australia - including at Allan Border field. He played for South Brisbane.
The Test selectors tried to fit Bichel in - he was 12th man a record number of times (19) in international cricket - but there is no doubt in my mind Lee was slightly over rated as a Test bowler (300 wickets at 31.85) - and that an ever improving Bichel was discounted too early.
WADE SECCOMBE
Seccombe would have been the best Australian Test gloveman since Ian Healy, but he was an inexplicable omission from Test teams. Fortunately he did have the honours and joy of touring with the 2001 Ashes party which was some reward, but he was good enough to play 50 Tests - and then some. Originally from Toowoomba, he played for University of Queensland.
MICHAEL NESER
Michael Neser has been circling the Test cricket team for several years now without winning a Test cap. He has toured against Pakistan, India, South Africa and England - and it was on the Ashes tour of England that Neser should have played ahead of either Peter Siddle or Mitchell Starc. Hopefully his time will come. The Southport School old boy is a Gold Coast product.
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PETER ALLAN
Allan played one Test against England in the 1960s, but when he was dropped he responded by taking all 10 wickets to fall against Western Australia. Test selectors often talk about monitoring how dropped players respond to their axing, and swing bowler Allan passed that examination with flying colours.
MITCHELL SWEPSON (12th man)
Swepson is like an eagle in the desert - he is circling and circling. To date a Test cap has been elusive despite being part of Australian squads on multiple occasions. Granted Test off-spinner Lyon is a fixture, but when Australia has played a second slow bowler alongside Lyon, leg-spinner Swepson should have been the man. Surely his time will come.
BEN CUTTING (13th man)
The younger generation see Cutting as a big hitting T20 batsman who also tends to get smashed in T20 bowling. But before T20 gripped the cricket world, Cutting was Queensland’s Sheffield Shield bowling enforcer, good enough to be named 12th man at a Gabba Tests. Like long time Heat teammate Chris Lynn, T20 may have helped his bank balance, but it did nothing to aid his progression onto touring Test squads. He was a South Brisbane player.
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Queensland pacemen Dirk Tazelaar (Western Suburbs, no Tests), Adam Dale (Wynnum Manly, two Tests) and Tony Dell (Easts, two Tests) were anothers strongly considered for this team, while Scott Muller (Gold Coast and Uni, two Tests) was also elite in the appropriate conditions and was unlucky not to play more.
Swing bowler Dale - who took a 202 Shield wickets at a remarkable average of just 21.77 - would have been a matchwinner in England and in Perth Tests.
Another hard luck story is former Easts gloveman and Churchie old boy Peter Anderson who was sublime behind the stumps.
But when he broke his finger standing up to the stumps to Ian Botham, Ian Healy seized his chance and the rest is history.
Before his back injury - and before T20 cricket impacted his technique - Toombul’s Chris Lynn was also looming as a potential Test batsman who, given the current batting stocks, would have been good enough to play Test cricket.
We also believe Jimmy Peirson is good enough to represent Australia - most likely in one-day or T20, but possibly in Tests.
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