Cricket Australia now identifies scores of ‘30-plus’ as a new benchmark

A DAY after Glenn Maxwell was omitted from the Test team for not scoring enough centuries, Cricket Australia has said it is looking for players to produce scores of ‘30-plus.’

New Australian coach Justin Langer. Picture: AFP

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THIRTY is the new 50 in the convoluted world of Australian cricket.

Raising standards for the baggy green has been the catch cry ever since the sky fell in in South Africa, but maybe not, it would seem, if you’re a batsman.

On Thursday, Cricket Australia released a bizarre statistical explanation on its official website as “rationale” for the selection panel’s controversial snubbing of Glenn Maxwell and others for next month’s Test tour against Pakistan in the UAE.

According to a story published on CA’s website, scores of “30 plus” have been identified as a “key metric” for a new-look squad trying to avoid batting collapses.

Perhaps most bewildering is this mediocre pillar seems to fly in the face of everything coach Justin Langer had been preaching for the initial 24 hours after the team was picked about how the bar needed to be raised and that hundreds were paramount.

Glenn Maxwell was controversially omitted from the Test squad to play Pakistan in the UAE. Picture: Getty Images

Langer was emphatic, with Maxwell as his example.

“Take the name out of it, we’ve got to get back to a point in Australian cricket where it’s really hard to get into the team,” he said on SEN radio.

“Otherwise we’ll keep accepting mediocrity and that’s not what we’re about.”

In CA’s defence, scoring hundreds and performance under pressure were the two other key metrics cited. However, the revelation there is now an emphasis on scoring 30s has many in the game shaking their heads.

According to Cricket Australia, Aaron Finch gets a “big tick” for his percentage of scores of 30 plus, as does fellow debutant-in-waiting Travis Head.

Maxwell on the other hand ranks lowly on the 30 plus count, and apparently this is more significant than the fact he averages 41 in first-class cricket compared to Finch and Head who manage just 36.

Cricket Australia gives Aaron Finch a ‘big tick’ for the number of innings in which he has scored more than 30 runs. Picture: AFP

Not so many years ago, 50 was the gilt-edged case for selection, 45 would get you in the discussion, and 40 was the mark of a player still with a bit of work to do.

Upon the likes of Jamie Siddons and Jamie Cox might have spat out their corn flakes upon finding out that 30 is the new standard.

It was obvious anyway but CA’s “30 plus rule” has laid bare just how far the quality of Australian batting has fallen, and also some might argue, how logic has been overtaken by metrics.

Test great Ian Chappell slammed the statistical based criteria.

“If you’re going to pick teams with too much emphasis on stats, you’re going to make some horrible blunders,” Chappell told The Daily Telegraph.

“There’s a fair bit of bollocks in that, the main one being scores over 30. The only time I would say (that has merit) is about opening batsmen.

“Guys like Ian Redpath who pretty regularly don’t get out early, they’re very valuable those guys even if they don’t go on to get a hundred.

“But judging anyone else other than openers by that is bollocks.”

New Australian coach Justin Langer. Picture: AFP

Matt Hayden told News Corp in a recent interview that aiming for hundreds is the only way to get Australia back on top of the world.

“If I was J Elbow, looking at it from a more broad based comment, I’d be looking for players that can score Test match 100s,” said Hayden before the team was picked.

“In order to do that, I’d be sending a message like a bullet train down the line to first class cricketers and club cricketers to say ‘mate, if you want to play for Australia you have to make hundreds.’”

In Langer’s defence, he has unequivocally demanded hundreds from Maxwell.

But according to CA, in the absence of that perhaps a few 30s might do.

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Originally published as Cricket Australia now identifies scores of ‘30-plus’ as a new benchmark