Is Darren Lehmann right about Australia’s chief selector being too close to the team?

Travis Head dropped during a Test series. Mitchell Starc dropped during a World Cup. David Warner on notice for his spot.

These were a few of the examples raised by players and staff within the Australian side on Thursday when this masthead asked them about former coach Darren Lehmann’s assertion that selection chair George Bailey was too close to the team and thus unable to make hard decisions.

Chief selector George Bailey watches a Shield match alongside Pat Cummins.Credit: Getty Images

Lehmann’s comments during the Gabba Test, backed up by his fellow ABC commentator Stuart Clark on Thursday, were lauded by many outside the team.

But they also raised plenty of eyebrows within it – particularly among the senior members of the squad who played under Lehmann, in a period that ended in the infamy of the ball-tampering scandal and was marked by plenty of capricious selection calls and wildly inconsistent results.

Team transition was also a sore point during Lehmann’s time in charge. His panel took an ageing squad to England in 2015 that was beaten comfortably by the hosts through batting collapses in Birmingham and Nottingham. Ryan Harris, Michael Clarke, Shane Watson, Brad Haddin and Mitchell Johnson all quit during or soon after the tour, before a much younger side struggled in 2016, losing five Tests in a row.

Those two trends were maintained during much of Justin Langer’s tenure between 2018 and 2022, especially before Bailey replaced Trevor Hohns as selection chair in mid-2021.

Former coach Darren Lehmann.Credit: Getty Images

Since then, Bailey, coach Andrew McDonald and captain Pat Cummins have all spoken eloquently about why things needed to change: opening up better communication between players and selectors and also allowing for the panel to spend more time close to the team.

A rough gauge of improvement can be provided by the team’s all-format results since 2021. Australia have won six Test series, drawn three and lost just one in that time, while also winning the Twenty20 and ODI World Cups and the World Test Championship. During Lehmann’s tenure from 2013 to 2018, Australia won nine Test series, drew one, and lost seven. They won the 2015 ODI World Cup at home.

During Langer’s time, with split selection panels, Australia won four Test series, lost three and drew one. They made the semi-finals of the 2019 ODI World Cup and won the 2021 Twenty20 Cup.

One of the strong views expressed by all concerned was that in bringing players and selectors closer together, the intention was to make the difficult conversations more, not less, likely to take place in a way that allowed the team to perform better.

As Bailey put it when similarly questioned last summer: “My only observation would be if someone can show me how being distant and unaware of what the players are going through and what the plans are with the team and the coaching staff and how that’s more beneficial, I’d be all ears.”

That openness will need to come to the fore as the panel looks at transitioning from one generation to another over the next two years. Usman Khawaja, Steve Smith and the injury-prone Josh Hazlewood now look the most likely candidates to fade out of the Test side first. The likes of Cummins, Marnus Labuschagne, Head, Alex Carey and Cameron Green will be the core of the side in 2027.

Neither Head (at the start of the 2023 India tour) nor Starc (at the 2022 Twenty20 World Cup) agreed with the decisions made, but respected the fact they had the chance to offer their point of view and have a conversation, rather than simply being tapped on the shoulder at training and told “you’re not playing”.

Cricket Australia’s head of team performance Ben Oliver said: “The national selection panel has a strong track record of decisions which have played an important role in the team’s success in recent years.

“This has been underpinned by a selection process which is thorough and informed by a deep understanding of the game, the team and players across all three formats.

“Having professional relationships with players, coaches and staff across the country is a strength that supports this process, and which allows for clear and open communication with players, states and clubs.”

The Warner example is perhaps the most fascinating of all. While Bailey’s panel has been subjected to plenty of criticism for “hanging on to” Warner for a couple of years after many observers felt his time was up, they were not shy in confronting the opener about the finish line.

In England last year, Warner was compelled to plan for a retirement from Test cricket at Lord’s during the second Ashes match if he did not make runs at the start of the tour.

His conversations with Bailey, McDonald and Cummins were as much about his style of play – needing to be proactive and putting pressure on bowlers – as his aggregates. As it was, Warner contributed well in the Test championship final and at Lord’s, earning the right to play on until January’s farewell against Pakistan.

The irony of all this is that as a proactive left-hander, Warner may well have been a more difficult opponent for Jasprit Bumrah than Nathan McSweeney has so far proven to be. Warner was speaking in jest at the start of the summer when he made himself available for selection against India. But several of the figures wondering if Warner had stayed on for too long were happy to admit on Thursday that his value for Australia was now being clearly seen in hindsight.

Whatever Lehmann may think, the reality is that hard decisions are still made by selectors – just in a manner that is less likely to leave players feeling confused or embittered about the way things have panned out. The hardest decisions, though, are looming fast.

News, results and expert analysis from the weekend of sport are sent every Monday. Sign up for our Sport newsletter.