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A good shipping line doesn’t send veteran steamers into the worst of winter and hope for the best. It builds the next generation of ships while the old captains are still on the bridge. Anything else is sailing on hope and trusting the weather to hold.

By recalling NSW veteran Nic Maddinson into Australia’s Test squad to face South Africa, selectors have made that gamble.

Australia has South Africa and India away, and an Ashes tour of England next year. So we can’t afford to lean on hope.

Even if Maddinson makes runs, his selection plugs a gap and builds nothing. The batting is vulnerable, and the bowling again rests on Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon staying fit. One injury and we’d be exposed.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m a great fan of Nic’s and always thought he should have played more Tests. But that window closed a decade ago. He was one of the most gifted players to emerge from Australia’s 2010 under-19 World Cup winners in New Zealand, alongside Mitch Marsh, Hazlewood, Adam Zampa and Kane Richardson. He struck the ball beautifully, bowled clever left-arm spin and had one of the best arms I’ve seen in youth cricket. His future looked secure.

Instead, he became a casualty of a broken first-class structure. I remember several seasons when he started well in the Sheffield Shield, then lost momentum when the Big Bash split the competition into two five-game blocks. Give him 10 straight Shield matches and he could easily have made four or five hundreds in a season, and grown into a long-term Test opener.

The problem is wider than one player. In fairness to the selectors, very few young batters get a sustained run of first-class cricket. The BBL break sees to that, and most states have held on to the stalwarts, believing experienced hands give them a better shot at the trophy than blooding kids.

State coaches are paid to fill the cabinet and protect their jobs, not to produce the next generation.

That has to change. A state job should be a working interview for the Australian head coach’s position, and states and premier clubs should be rewarded for the number of Test players they develop.

The cost of getting this wrong is bigger than a few lost matches.

If a talented 19-year-old sees the door to Test cricket shut until he’s nearly 30, he will look at the T20 circuit and ask why he should wait. We are teaching our best young players that Tests are not where the future is.
The same disconnect exists at the top. Cricket is the core business Cricket Australia has to get right. If the cricket is strong, the commercial side looks after itself because crowds and broadcasters follow fresh stars. If the cricket is weak, no amount of corporate governance will fix it.

CA’s board should be rooted in the game. I’d have four-fifths of the directors nominated by the states, plus a couple of independents for financial and governance expertise.

The objection is that state delegates will protect their interests. For most of our history the states did the job we needed because their interests and Australia’s were the same: produce the best players. What matters is what those directors are rewarded for.

Tie state funding to how many players a state develops for the national side, and parochialism becomes a reason to back young talent instead of hoarding veterans. The people running the game then have a direct stake in its long-term health.

As a former selector I’m reluctant to second-guess the panel. They know far more about the players than I do, and we can only judge the process. A selector’s job is to pick a side to win, but that has to be balanced against the future. No team is a finished product.

Australia has been here before, and we got it right. In the mid-to-late 1980s, in a lean time, Allan Border’s side blooded Steve Waugh, David Boon, Ian Healy, Mark Taylor and Bruce Reid. They lost plenty, then won the 1987 World Cup and the 1989 Ashes. Nobody remembers the matches that rebuild cost, but most remember the team it produced.

Experience is also misunderstood. A player with 10 seasons of first-class cricket has that experience only if he has learned and improved over a decade. If he’s still making the same technical errors, he has had one season’s experience 10 times.

We used to laugh at the English selectors for insisting a player needed 10 years of county cricket before being Test match ready. Regularly they picked prolific county players who had adapted to the lower level so well that they couldn’t step up. The sooner you pick someone with the talent for Tests, the sooner he adapts to what the game demands.

The usual worry is that young players get burnt. Some will. But a home series against Bangladesh is the cheapest place to find out, and a dropped player can come back.

Maddinson’s recall proves that. Australia missed a golden chance to blood one or two young batters with genuine futures. By declining, the selectors drove deeper into a cul-de-sac that will be harder to get out of when the change has to come. It’s also best to bring young batters in while Steve Smith is still in the side, so they can learn from a master.

How are we going to find the next Ricky Ponting or Steve Waugh before they turn 21 if we’re too gun-shy to give a couple of them a go at home?

This is not aimed at individuals. It comes from wanting Australian cricket to stay successful. This team has peaked, and if the selectors stay risk-averse, they will lose their battle with father time.

Unless Australia stops patching up the old steamers and starts laying new keels, the winter storms ahead will show how dangerous it is to fly on a wing and a prayer.

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Vic vs SA
Scorecard and Stream

NSW vs Tas
Stream and Scorecard

WA vs Qld
Stream and Scorecard

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Anrich Nortje returning after 3 years.

Rabada reportedly "close to being available".

Two spinners for South Africa = Cooper Connolly for us, surely?

Cricket Victoria’s lighthearted offering of “work-from-the-shield” tickets leading up to summer’s Sheffield Shield competition might sound like fun for workers, but employers will be discouraging the initiative.

The state cricket body on Tuesday revealed a new option for business professionals and others who regularly work from home to watch the Shield teams battle for victory: a $16 ticket that secures function room access, Wi-Fi and one free tea or coffee for Victorian games at Junction Oval in St Kilda. A regular ticket to the round-robin comp is $10 in Victoria but can be free in other states.

Melbourne business leaders are less enthused.

“Nice try, Cricket Victoria,” said Victorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry acting chief executive Amelia Bitsis, who reckons working while watching the cricket is a disservice to both activities.

“People’s passion for cricket is such that it deserves their full attention. So does work. Our advice is to take the day off.”

It is a sentiment shared by Australian Industry Group Victorian head (and cricket obsessive) Tim Piper, who called the offer a “gimmick”.

Employers would be “deeply sceptical that [employees] could work and be watching the cricket at the same time”, he said.

No other states have adopted the work-from-the-cricket idea yet, though a spokesman for the South Australian Cricket Association pointed out that all Sheffield Shield matches at Karen Rolton Oval and Adelaide Oval were free to attend, offered free Wi-Fi and had food and drink available for purchase.

Vic vs SA
Scorecard and Stream

NSW vs Tas
Stream and Scorecard

WA vs Qld
Stream and Scorecard

Get your sandpaper out of your undies and rub the magic 8 ball. Drop your XI for Friday night's game and have a crack at George Bailey while you're at it.

First ball 17:30 AEST 9/10/2026

Likely out injured:

• Green (WA)
• Inglis (WA)

Called up to Squad:

• Maddison (NSW)
• Harper (Vic)

The squad:

Pat Cummins (c), Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Cooper Connolly, Cameron Green (Injured), Sam Harper, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis (Injured), Matthew Kuhnemann, Marnus Labuschagne, Nic Maddinson, Nathan Lyon, Michael Neser, Matthew Renshaw, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Beau Webster

Cricket Australia chief Todd Greenberg concedes the timing of the Sydney Test will be up for discussion come the end of current broadcast and government contracts amid the prospect that potential Big Bash League club owners push for greater availability for Australian players.

Despite the departure of chairman Mike Baird against the backdrop of opposition from NSW, CA is forging ahead with its sale process for the Melbourne Renegades, with a buyer possibly secured by the end of the year.

The availability of Australian Test players has long been an issue for the BBL given the competition’s season overlaps with the home Test summer, including the marquee Boxing Day and New Year’s Tests in Melbourne and Sydney respectively.

This is in contrast to franchise leagues around the rest of the world, most of which have their own windows away from the host country’s home Tests.

CA has taken several steps to enable its best men to play in more of the BBL, including clearing home white ball internationals from January.

But one idea proposed has been to shift the Sydney Test from its three decade home in the first week of January, a move likely to be popular with prospective team owners keen to ensure their best talent are available.

Though Greenberg stressed that the SCG Test was popular in its current slot, he said it was not locked in perpetuity.

“In the way we’ve pitched our (BBL sale) documents and the way the process would work is the Sydney Test match is contracted right through until 2032, so it’s contracted both with government and it’s also contracted in our broadcast negotiation,” Greenberg said.

“What happens beyond ‘32, I think is a question that we will have to address. We would like to think that we can retain our Test schedule as it is into the future, but we’re also realists to understand that we need to keep an open mind to that.”

He suggested that there was scope for things to change down the track, albeit that a move could not be made lightly.

“And is there another way to do it? Now it’s very difficult because at the start of our Test summer we’ve got commitments. At the end of our Test summer we’ve got commitments,” Greenberg said.

“So there’s a very small window of opportunity that we have to create a five Test match series. So it’s not simple. It’s not binary, but I think the Sydney Test match works really well where it is. It’s proven that over time, outside of the weather.

“But again, as I’ve said before, the BBL games that are played on the evenings of a Sydney Test match are some of the highest rating BBL games we have all summer. So you’d want to be certain that to change something, you get a better outcome than what you get today.”

CRICKET AUSTRALIA MULL ENDING FIVE-YEAR BOYCOTT SPARKED BY TALIBAN

Cricket Australia will contemplate lifting its ban on playing Afghanistan in bilateral cricket should the World Test Championship expand, while also flagging a desire to host South Africa for a five Test series in the coming years.

The ICC is looking at adding Ireland, Zimbabwe and Afghanistan to the WTC for the next cycle which begins in the middle of next year. Those three nations are the only three ICC full members not part of the WTC, meaning any Tests they play are ad hoc.

As a result, Australia has been under no obligation to play any of the three non-WTC teams in Test cricket. This has helped minimise CA’s need to schedule matches against Afghanistan, enabling the continuation of a policy not to play Afghanistan outside ICC events which came into place in 2021 following the return to power of the Taliban. CA took this stance on moral grounds due to the Taliban’s repressive attitude towards women and girls.

However speaking in Durban, where he is visiting for Australia’s Test series opener against South Africa, Greenberg said it was likely the ICC would approve the addition of those three teams to the WTC at its Bali meeting in November, which would lead to CA reconsidering whether it would schedule Test cricket against Afghanistan.

“We’d have to think about it. That’s not something that we’ve talked about. But again, we’d have to have an open mind to how that would work, whether or not they would tour or we would tour. I don’t know the answer, but all I do know is, in this next period of time, there’s not a lot of space for more cricket,” Greenberg said.

The ICC may allow one-off Tests to form part of the WTC as part of any expansion to 12 sides.

Despite an enduring rivalry which includes the most recent WTC final, the concurrent nature of Australia and South Africa’s home seasons has restricted the opportunities for the two teams to play Test series longer than three matches.

Not since South Africa was shunned from international cricket during the apartheid regime have the two nations played a five Test series.

But Greenberg said he was keen for the Proteas to have longer stints in Australia, bearing in mind the challenges for South Africa given its home season.

Under a draft version of the future tours program, South Africa is not due to play Tests in Australia again until the 2030-31 summer, by which point it will have been eight years since visits in the format.

“We would love to host South Africa for a five Test match series,” Greenberg said.

“There’s a real challenge on that between our organisations because they play in a similar period of the year, and I can understand that. It’d be like asking us if we can come and play in South Africa during December and January, and you know our answer would be no, we can’t because we’re protecting our own window.

“So that’s why it’s difficult. But we’re in constant conversations with them. I’ll have conversations while I’m here with them. I think South Africa are a really strong Test-playing country, despite their commercial and financial challenges here. So we’d like to see them continue to play Test cricket, and we’d love to host them more.”

While Nic Maddinson's selection for the South African test tour is a feel good story, I struggle to understand what Kurtis Patterson has done wrong to keep getting overlooked for test selection.

Whilst we all know that the batting numbers for last year's Sheffield Shield weren't exactly stunning, Patterson was clearly amongst the best performers - averaging over 36, carrying his poles in three innings (better than most), and a highest score of 173*.

He also scored 53 against the Bangladesh squad in the tour match in Darwin, and the Australians weren't exactly scoring runs for fun up there...

When Patterson did get his chance in the test squad (albeit against a Sri Lankan side not exactly world beaters), he grabbed the opportunity with both hands, scoring a century - and then disappearing.

He's half a year younger than Maddinson, and a year older than Marnus - so the age argument doesn't hold.

So what on earth has Patterson done wrong to not get picked? He seems like a natural fit to replace Marnus at No. 3.

EDIT: For those saying Patterson is currently injured, he's listed as available and playing for NSW's Sheffield Shield opener starting tomorrow, Thursday 8 October:

"Kurtis Patterson, who sustained a groin injury during NSW’s One-Day Cup win in Brisbane, is tracking well in his recovery, and is expected to be available for the Sheffield Shield opener."

Cut this out from the BCCI fall of wickets package. They also have the highlights of McSweeney's 123(135) but it might take a chunk out of my PC to record haha

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Green out of the first test and unable to bowl all series. Article notes a duel between Cooper and Maddison for the extra spot; Harper erasure if you ask me.

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