Melbourne, July 31 (ANI): Have Australia's selectors devalued the worth of its Test cricketers with too great an emphasis on short-form specialists? That is the question doing the rounds in cricket circles in the country ion the wake of the shocking sacking of tried and tested opener Simon Katich.
The selectors dumped Katich despite the 35-year-old being the second most prolific Test batsman in world cricket, behind England's Alastair Cook, since being recalled midway through 2008.
In place of the likes of Katich, a bunch of sloggers and short-game specialists who may never make a meaningful contribution to lifting Australia from fifth on the official Test rankings have retained their contracts.
What further confirms the above is that November's Test tour of South Africa has been reduced to just two Tests for the first time to fit around the Champions League Twenty20 tournament.
Cricket Australia has also slashed state contracts for those who play in the Test nursery of the Sheffield Shield to finance the expanded Twenty20 Big Bash.
The Herald Sun asks in its report-What sort of a message does this send to the next generation?
That Twenty20 is the game if you want to make millions in the IPL, and if you can play one-day cricket as well, you will get a CA contract. Never mind if you have got poor to modest first-class figures, the standard gauge of future Test players.
Australia contracts 25 players. England, which has won three of the past four Ashes series, contracts just 12 players.
Australian Cricketers' Association chief executive Paul Marsh defends the ranking of 25 players based on combining their worth across all three forms of the game.
Test players receive a weighting of 1.25, one-day players 0.8 and Twenty20 players 0.2.
Australia plays an average of 30 one-day matches a year and those players deserve to be recognised, Marsh said.
Likewise, CA's acting chief executive Michael Brown claimed the contract system attempted to achieve a balance. It strongly favours Test players, Brown said.
No so, given Katich's recent outstanding record. (ANI)
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