Bizarre Selections

It must be tough being a selector in a test series against the current South Africans, especially a NZ one. We are so outgunned at the moment that whomever you choose to play will likely end up looking a duff selection.

The current two-man selection panel - John Wright + Kim Littlejohn (former Australian Lawn Bowls Director!) + presumably a few inputs from Ross Taylor - unveiled their selection policy at the start of the season, an ambitious-sounding "selection pie" method. Trouble is, I don't think it is that easily applicable in a nation like NZ where the standard of domestic cricket is pretty low to begin with. From what I gathered during his time as coach of the Indian team, it doesn't sound like John Wright's way of doing things either.

Wright and co. have made a few excellent calls this season. The elevation of Doug Bracewell and Dean Brownlie to the national side has worked a treat so far. But both these players made the side on the basis of their performances during the Emerging Players' overseas tour (equivalent to an 'A' side series). Where the selection pie method may have worked is in the recall of Mark Gillespie, who put in the hard yards and enjoyed a couple of productive first-class seasons after he was discarded three years ago.

But otherwise, we've seen a number of odd hunch-based selections, and this is where I call bullshit. During the ODI series, we seemed to show more faith in middle-of-the-road bits n' pieces cricketers than specialists, and this played right into South Africa's hands. I can't imagine how we were expecting to challenge them with the likes of Michael Bates, Andrew Ellis and Colin de Grandhomme in the side; while the one bowler who troubled the Saffers, legspinner Tarun Nethula got just one game. In addition, the timing of Ryder's recall was bad, and clearly affected the team.

To me it seems this confusion has spilled over into the test series. Trent Boult was inexplicably dropped for the trundler Brent Arnel, and it ended quite badly. Rob Nicol was brought in as opener to allow McCullum to stay at no.3, and failed miserably. And now it looks like Daniel Flynn (who's been batting at no.5 for Northern Districts) is to be rushed in as opener. Brownlie, who's barely recovered from injury, is supposed to help save the batting as well. This leaves us with a weakened bowling attack in a must-win final test.

It's entirely possible these selections might work, but I hope this is just a one-off. For now, the selectors could probably use that piece of advice Douglas Adams offered in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Don't Panic.