Australia’s defeat in Bangladesh was embarrassing for a pack of overpaid prima donnas

AUSTRALIA, if you’re going to go on strike over pay packets by heck you have to make sure you back it up in the field, writes Jon Anderson of our cricket team’s humiliating defeat.

Australian cricket team captain Steve Smith, left, and his teammate David Warner leave the ground after end of the third day of the first test cricket match against Bangladesh in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Tuesday, Aug. 29, 2017. (AP Photo/A.M. Ahad)

WHAT happened in the capital of Bangladesh at Dhaka was on one hand wonderful for world cricket and on the other embarrassing for a pack of overpaid prima donnas.

The wonderful part relates to the Bangladesh cricketers who scored their most significant victory in a 102-Test history that only began 17 years ago.

Hopefully it leads to them becoming a legitimate Test-playing nation in venues not just at home.

And then there are the prima donnas, otherwise known as the Australian Test team. I use that term because these are the same players who went on strike over their pay packets, ones that dwarf most professional sportspersons in this country.

So if you want to play that game, by heck you have to make sure you back it up in the field of play.

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Losing to the Bangers, albeit in an entertaining Test match, is hardly doing that.

Actually, it’s not totally their fault because our Test selectors didn’t help by picking a side not best suited to the conditions.

Usman Khawaja is a perfectly capable Test number three on Australian soil, but taking him to the subcontinent is a waste of time.

In five Tests in those conditions he has made 21, 26, 13no, 26, 18, 11, 0, 1 and 1, hardly compelling reasons to pick him.

Bangladesh's cricket team captain Mushfiqur Rahim, shakes hand with Australian cricket team captain Steve Smith

This was after he was selected to tour India earlier this year but not chosen in any of the four Tests. They clearly didn’t think he could handle the conditions then so why was he chosen?

Hilton Cartwright had a ripper domestic season for Western Australia and can bowl a few overs if they want someone to take the new ball with Pat Cummins. You could also ask why we even took two pacemen into the first Test.

We also pick Ashton Agar ahead of Jon Holland because he is a far superior batsmen and fieldsman. But what about taking wickets?

Holland has been the most destructive domestic spinner by an Adam Gilchrist six over the past two seasons yet continues to be ignored.

Australian cricket team captain Steve Smith, left, and his teammate David Warner leave the ground

And just to really rub it in, the player who has been flown to Bangladesh to replace the injured Josh Hazlewood is Steve O’Keefe, the 32-year-old who was fined $20,000 and banned from this year’s domestic one-day competition over drunken behaviour and offensive comments made at the NSW Cricket end-of-season awards night.

Victoria’s cricket hierarchy want answers, particularly after Holland was selected ahead of O’Keefe in the training camp in Darwin prior to the Bangladesh tour.

Also under pressure is former Victorian captain Matthew Wade, who seems to favour being hit on the pads rather than his bat when facing spin, being out LBW on four of his last eight dismissals on the subcontinent.

He now averages 29 after 21 Tests, an average that was acceptable 40 years ago in the days of Rod Marsh, but one that Gilchrist made redundant

Originally published as Australia’s defeat in Bangladesh was embarrassing for a pack of overpaid prima donnas