Steve Waugh rarely pops up in the media these days, so when he does people listen. On Tuesday, while picking up the MCC Waterford Crystal Ashes Trophy at the SCG, the former captain questioned whether chief selector George Bailey is ready to make the uncomfortable calls that usually come with an ageing squad.
Australia’s initial Ashes group contains only one player under 30. The rest – Usman Khawaja turns 39 next month, Nathan Lyon is 38 this week, and the core fast bowlers will all be 35 or older by summer’s end – remain automatic picks because, simply, they keep delivering. Yet Waugh senses the tipping point is close.
“George Bailey’s going to have to make some tough calls,” Waugh said. “I think in the past he’s shown he hasn’t really had the appetite for that at times, so he’s going to have to step up to the plate with the other selectors.”
Waugh lived through a similar moment two decades ago. He retired in 2004 at 38, not long after Ian Healy and Mark Waugh had been moved on. Back then the selectors staggered departures so the side never fell over a cliff. That thinking still guides him.
“You just want to make sure that three or four players don’t go out at the same time. That leaves a big hole in the team. So they’ve got to just make sure that it is a transition, but not all at once.”
He is equally clear on who should control the process. “I’d like to see the selectors pick the sides, not the players,” Waugh said. “There’s been a lot of players recently picking sides and saying who should be in the team. That’s the selectors’ job.”
That last remark referenced Usman Khawaja’s public suggestion that Matt Renshaw and Marnus Labuschagne might partner him in the top three – a view that would squeeze someone else out. Khawaja was backing his state team-mate, which isn’t unusual, but Waugh feels the selection debate should stay out of the dressing-room.
Bailey responded a day later, politely but firmly. “My question back, is there a tipping number once a player hits an age you move them on?” he said. “Is that what it should be for all the guys in the team still performing? Should that be the most important criteria?”
The chief selector insists performances still trump birth certificates. “That’s not to say you’re not aware of the age profile of the team, but we see each and every Test as being important. You have Australia A tours, getting guys across to the sub-continent … getting guys in and around Test squads, utilising one-day cricket as an entry point.”
In short, Bailey believes rotations, A-tours and limited-overs cricket provide enough space to blood the next crop without sacrificing wins now. Waugh, pragmatic as ever, simply hopes the panel keeps one eye on today and the other on tomorrow.
Neither argument is wrong. The bigger question, really, is timing – and whether Australia can avoid losing half a team in one hit.
