George Bailey's absence from the Test team illustrates the failings of Cricket Australia

GEORGE Bailey captains Australia with attitude and excitement and his absence from the Test team illustrates Cricket Australia's failings.

IN INDIA this week, George Bailey fell two runs short of a century playing one-day cricket. He is captaining a team that few of us thought should be there and who even fewer believed could produce any form in the lead-up to the upcoming Ashes series.

Bailey’s batting form is actually an aside to the main story. It is his attitude, and that of his team-mates, which has generated some excitement in an otherwise bleak cricket environment.

As Bailey was once again leading from the front, with a big smile on his face, former Test captain Ricky Ponting was laying it all on the line at the launch of his already best-selling book.

He had to be paid a million dollars to say it but Ponting has lambasted Cricket Australia for failing to invest in the game’s future and for taking its eyes off the ball in just about every aspect of the sport. He is not quite as universally loved in the way Mark Taylor was but Ponting nailed Cricket Australia for its lack of vision, leadership and direction.

CA returned fire later in the week when it held another of its meaningless annual meetings where all and sundry declared their undying support for chief executive James Sutherland and head of high performance Pat Howard.

The deluded chairman, Wally Edwards, declared Sutherland was still the man and that, win or lose the Ashes this summer, Howard would remain front and centre of the decision making in Australian cricket. Make no mistake, Howard, has been handed such ridiculous extremes of authority that just about every time a player is picked or dropped at every level of the game you can bet Howard made the call.

The gormless Sutherland, a nice enough bloke, claimed the investment in cricket during Ponting’s era went from $39 million to $75 million. He failed to mention that the money was spent on complicating the game to the extent that sports scientists, high performance directors and layers of coaches now control what used to be a pretty simple game.

The complete lack of vision from CA has seen a failure at every level to develop players, particularly batsmen, into genuine Test prospects. The desire to cram as much cricket as possible into the schedule has seen a decline in the standards we had come to expect were normal in Australian cricket.

An obsession with revenue-raising limited overs matches and uncovering batting talent who only like spending 30 minutes at the crease for their 50 runs has led to a complete capitulation at Test level.

CA is crowing about the growing television audience that has come off the back of the Big Bash. While it delivers a quick fix and an on-paper result, the Big Bash also represents all that is wrong with the game. Patience in cricketers, or viewers, no longer exists.

When someone like a George Bailey comes along, he is immediately shunted to the short forms of the game. There is no bright spark saying Bailey could easily tweak his game to suit the Test arena. Instead, he is sent off to captain the team in India, where everyone thought we would be terrible and that no good could come of it.

Bailey’s leadership deserves comparison with that of current Test captain Michael Clarke. Certainly Clarke is our only current world class batsman, but I believe his leadership is at times divisive and questionable under pressure. Clarke has seen off Simon Katich and Mike Hussey while pumping up the likes of Usman Khawaja, who is a class below either.

But having watched the way Bailey plays his cricket, and the manner in which his teammates seem to be actually enjoying the game, it would not surprise to see him left out of the Test arena for the entire summer.

Cricket is a mess in Australia. When a player like George Bailey is not an automatic choice for an Ashes series, you know head office has completely lost the plot. While the chairman has grimly defended all of this nonsense for several years now, the sport is crumbling at the elite level.

Big television deals will not gloss over the issues enveloping what was once our favourite sport.

When the likes of Ponting come out with all guns blazing, you know there is trouble in the camp.

The number is up for Sutherland and Howard. Their departure will at least pave the way for a return to normality, away from the idea that a sports scientist can hook a bowler out of the nets before he has warmed up. George Bailey shows the spirit is still alive. It just needs somebody in head office to embrace it.