You win nothing with kids

At the start of the 1995-96 English football season the Premiership seemed remarkably open. Blackburn were champs and their blond striker Shearer seemed to score at will. Newcastle looked like an expansive side with new signings Ferdinand and Ginola. Liverpool with a team of skill – McManaman, Barnes, Redknapp, Collymore, Fowler – grafted on to veterans like Wright, Rush, Thomas. And Aston Villa seemed to be the dark horses, full of blossoming potential – particularly when they pulled Manchester United apart on the first day 3-1.

Scots legend Alan Hansen then uttered one of the great lines – a line that proved so wrong he has not fully lived it down 13 years later (and incidentally it also shows that pundits who have never played to any level can often be more correct than the greats of the game…). Hansen looked at the Manchester United squad – with a core lifted from the Youth team in the last couple of seasons – the Neville brothers, Scholes, Butt, and one David Beckham – and said “you never win anything with kids”.

He was spectacularly wrong. United won the double that year – and the youngsters showed their mettle. In just over a year all five were playing for England. All five are still playing top level football. Scholes and Gary Neville are still with United and have won 21 major trophies each.

So, I think it can be stated categorically, you CAN win things with kids. It helps if they are as brilliant as Scholes and Beckham, as hard grafting as Neville and Butt. It also helps when you have the occasional experienced Eric Cantona or Peter Schmeichel to act as lightning rods.

When the selectors listed the New Zealand team for the Chappell-Hadlee last week it must have come as a shock for more than Chris Martin that Trent Boult and Brendon Diamanti were drafted into the side, alongside Broom, Elliott, Guptill and Southee. Okay so Diamanti and Elliott are hardly "kids" but you know what I mean. I have been waiting for Boult to emerge since his performances at the Youth World Cup. But Diamanti is a real bolter, someone I have never considered would play for New Zealand one day.

I appreciate that there has been a sea change in New Zealand – thanks to Indian lucre – and Shane Bond, Chris Harris, Darryl Tuffey and Hamish Marshall are merely in State Shield to taunt us, that we have lost Fleming, Macca, Adams and Vincent and that there are injuries to key players like Oram and Styris. We have to trawl deeply for young talent. And I have acknowledged that the selectors have got it right more often than they have erred – Guptill and Southee in particular looking like cricket’s version of Big Wednesday.

Nevertheless the team to play Australia looks, well, nacreous. Callow. Shiny. Virginal. This is a very inexperienced side. Only five of the team from the last instalment of the Chappell-Hadlee – just over a year ago – remain.

Franklin, Sinclair, How, Marshall, or even an Ian Butler – though I have not seen him play all year – might have given the squad some bulk, some old muscle and mongrel to augment the freshness and vigour. Craig Cumming parachuting in after Jesse’s injury is the kind if thing – though I doubt he was on many people’s list as a likely man-for-man replacement for “Juicy”, everybody’s favorite teetotaller. You need someone who has been around the block, been through the crucible of international cricket – or at the very least had his face broken by Dale Steyn.

I do think that Cumming will merely add to Nathan Bracken’s ODI ranking, but I worry deeply about the cast of Grange Hill that we have selected for the Chappell-Hadlee. The thing that does give me a lot of hope is that Australia seem atrocious at the moment – well "atrocious" is all relative, as they look much better against South Africa than we did a year ago, but you know what I mean. Australia have a bowling lineup that seems distinctly unsettled, and players like Marsh, Warner and Hussey Jr who are inexperienced – particularly in the case of Warner, who has not even made his first-class debut, which makes Trent Boult look like a weather-beaten old tar.

It is a shame not to be able to send street fighters like Macca, Bond, Styris and Oram, or not to choose older heads like Franklin, How or Martin. This worries me. Australia are as weak as they have been for fifteen years. We have a core of talented players – grafted on to a group of indubitably talented, but enormously inexperienced players. Just to compare – Broom, Elliott, Guptill, Southee, Diamanti, Boult and O’Brien have played fewer one-dayers combined than James Hopes. By himself. It is at this point that I shake me head and put on my best Scots brogue and declare “You never win anything with kids.”

Picture: Fairfax

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Paul   #1   07:35 pm Jan 29 2009

Australia are very poor at the moment. Not being able to select Lee, Symonds and Watson is having a significant impact against class opposition. I still reckon the Australian side would be able to beat the NSW Seconds and the Australian PM's side though.

Mark   #2   04:46 pm Jan 30 2009

Well done, I always admire someone who actually gives an opinion rather then merely sitting on a fence

Purple-Shirted Eye Stabber   #3   07:53 pm Jan 30 2009

So it's a young and inexperienced side - it's still our best XI, more or less. I have to admit to a raised eyebrow at the inclusion of Diamanti and O'Brien, but unfortunately this season is one in which quality bowlers are a bit thin on the ground.

Of the alternatives you've mentioned; Sinclair has never been a particularly good one day player (although he's been in good touch this year admittedly), How's out of form, and James Marshall simply isn't good enough. James Franklin - awesome as he is - has always struggled to keep the runs down in one dayers and Ian Butler? Come on.

I'm really looking forward to seeing how our boys do over there - with the huge exceptions of Ricky Ponting and Mike Hussey I don't think Australia as they stand right now are any better than we are (if they had Lee, Clarke and Symonds that'd be a different story), it's up to our players to overcome the mental hurdle that comes with playing them.

geebs   #4   10:30 am Feb 02 2009

Not to take anything away from the win but, other than McCullum and Taylor, everybody else looks weak. May be not Guptill, he was better while he lasted.. Seriously, I have been an eager fan of Fulton but.. it's kind of disappointing to see him struggle every time he's been chosen to play.

Ross   #5   02:50 pm Feb 03 2009

Geebs obviously didn't see Australia's tactics... Need I say anything except, poor Neil Broom?

O'Brien is a talented Test bowler, world class in Tests and his superb bowling in the batting powerplay showed this. How many bowlers can halve their average? Although DJ Hussey could probably do it by luck, but expect it to be over 100, even if he grabs a wicket.

Elliot needs to be dropped for Cumming. Cumming is a Elliot mold player except with better batting and worse bowling. Did Elliot bowl in Perth?

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