‘Bulls***’: Australian cricket stars snubbed in shameless Team of Year snub

Australian stars have been shamelessly snubbed with outrage surrounding the announcement of the world’s best cricket team.

Pat Cummins’ men have “completed cricket” but have somehow, inexplicably, been wiped out in Wisden’s Test Team of the Year.

There has been anger and scoffing ever since the publication, viewed as the “Bible of Cricket”, released its chosen Men’s Test XI of 2024 in its January edition.

Cummins is the most stunning omission with fans around the world wanting answers as to why the Australian captain was snubbed.

Watch every game of the BBL Finals LIVE and ad-break free during play on Kayo. New to Kayo? Get your first month for just $1. Limited time offer.

To rub salt into Australia’s wounds, the English publication found a way to squeeze five Poms into the elite team.

Australia had seven wins and two defeats in red ball cricket during the 2024 calendar year — and this summer’s thrilling Border-Gavaskar series win over India booked the Aussies a place in the World Test Championship final at Lord’s in London, beginning July 11.

England, meanwhile, played a whopping 17 Tests in the same period — finishing with three series wins and two losses. Nine total Test victories and eight losses.

There are cases for Travis Head, Alex Carey, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon to all have been selected.

Sometimes even experts can have their eyes painted on. Photo by Saeed KHAN / AFP.

Lesser scribes would ask serious questions about the credibility of a publication that could get something so wrong.

Cummins returned 37 wickets at an average of 24.2 last year. He also contributed 306 runs with the bat. Nobody is screaming for official all-rounder status recognition more than him.

He was also named the Leading Cricketer in the World by Wisden in April.

Head, widely viewed as the world’s best middle-order batsman across red ball and white ball cricket, plundered 608 runs with three centuries and one half-century.

Hazlewood (35 wickets at 13.6), Nathan Lyon (33 wickets at 22.69), and keeper Alex Carey (440 runs at 33.84 and 49 dismissals) also had serious cases.

However, those performances went overlooked by the Wisden selection panel — made up of 41 cricket commentators from around the globe.

A quick look showed there were just four Australians involved in the panel of experts with their eyes painted on.

The publication acknowledged its snub of Aussie players just once.

“Reigning champions Australia will join them (South Africa) at Lord’s following their home series win against India, but our 41-strong panel – the biggest we’ve had in the six years we’ve been selecting a Men’s Test XI of the Year – couldn’t find room for a single Aussie in this year’s chosen number,” cricket commentator Jo Harman wrote.

Mitchell Starc, Scott Boland, Nathan Lyon, Pat Cummins and Beau Webster. Photo by Darrian Traynor/Getty Images.

“This after four Australians had appeared in our XI in 2023 and 2022.”

This year’s wipeout of Australian and South African players has not gone down well.

Veteran ABC cricket commentator Jim Maxwell led the backlash.

He responded to one tweet on X that described Wisden as “England cricket fanboys”.

His response was cutting.

“They are bazbullshitted,” he posted.

“Need to play hard cricket in Oz v this aus team. Need (Ben) Stokes fit and focused

“Cummins had a pretty good year, 37 wkts, 306 runs, captain. McGilvray medallist, third time as ABC test cricketer of the year and Aus still champs. What a TEAM.”

When questioned about his criticism, Maxwell posted: “Selection? Just an opinion garnished from a panel of journalists.

“In the wash up amounts to nothing, other than an opinion. Better to judge team performance and how this WTC default creation, Aust v S Africa, will play in the Final.”

One cricket fan responded to a post from the official Wisden X account by writing: “This team wouldn’t beat current Australian XI, some ridiculous selections.”

Fans were scathing of the selections on Wisden’s Facebook and Instagram accounts.

“Haha, this is an absolute stitch up,” one person commented on Instagram.

Another wrote: “Who was on the panel? No Cummins or Head is laughable.”

One Facebook reader posted: “Sorry Wisden Cricket, but a best XI without either Head, Cummins or Rabada is a bit of a laugh.”

Another posted: “No Pat Cummins is a disgrace.”

It’s a pretty fair point.

Pat Cummins has been winning things for fun. (Photo by Saeed KHAN / AFP.

This summer’s series victory against India means Cummins’ side has “completed” Test cricket by winning every bilateral series against all Test playing nations.

In recent years Australia have won the 2021 T20 World Cup, the 2023 ODI World Cup, the World Test Championship in 2023 and have held the Ashes for nearly a decade.

Cummins’ legacy is quickly becoming a guy who just wins things for fun.

Winning everything that is, except the approval of the good folks at Wisden.

Wisden’s Test Team of 2024: 1. Yashasvi Jaiswal, 2. Ben Duckett, 3. Kane Williamson, 4. Joe Root, 5. Harry Brook, 6. Kamindu Mendis, 7. Jamie Smith (wk), 8. Ravindra Jadeja, 9. Gus Atkinson, 10. Matt Henry, 11. Jasprit Bumrah (c).

Wisden Test Team of the Year selection panel

Naman Agarwal, Lawrence Booth, Nicholas Brookes, Mark Butcher, Ian Callender, Adam Collins, Mel Farrell, Daniel Gallan, Ben Gardner, Jo Harman, TAaha Hashim, Adam Hopkins, Jon Hotten, Mohammad Isam, Rahul Iyer, GEOFF Lemon, Jonathan Liew, David Lloyd, Will Macpherson, Amer Malik, Suresh Menon, Andrew Miller, Abhishek Mukherjee, Daniel Norcross, Scott Oliver, Tawhid Qureshi, Mark Ramprakash, Yas Rana, Matt Roller, Atri Sanfui, Dan Senior, Aadya Sharma, Rob Smyth, John Stern, Phil Walker, James Wallace, Sarah Waris, Felix White, Tim Wigmore, Katya Witney, Andy Zaltzman

Originally published as ‘Bulls***’: Australian cricket stars snubbed in shameless Team of Year snub