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Though Bailey – who was contacted for comment – is not the first person in that role to wear the team tracksuit or watch from the dressing room, his close relationship has been a sticking point through his three years in the top job. The inference is he does not have the objectivity to make the tough call. But Bailey last defended his approach last December, saying: “My only observation would be if someone can show me how being distant and unaware of what the players are going through and what the plans are with the team and the coaching staff and how that’s more beneficial, I’d be all ears.”
The point was most spectacularly made by former speedster Mitchell Johnson in his spat with David Warner last summer, but also a view shared privately by some on NSW’s selection panel, for whom Zampa’s Shield selection was the latest source of concern.
Some in NSW had wanted Steve Smith to play more than just the one Shield game before the Tests against India, according to two sources with knowledge of the matter but speaking on the condition of anonymity.
Smith is one of several stars whose preparation for the India series has been questioned by a number of former players, including Michael Clarke and Ian Healy, after Australia’s poor performance in Perth. It is an area where McDonald and his coaching staff will continue to feel the heat should the team turn in another stinker in the pink-ball Test.
“If you’re working for print, radio, TV, you get paid for comment, you can’t just not have a comment,” Lehmann said. “They shouldn’t take it to heart. It doesn’t mean they don’t care about them. The past players care for the current players deeply, but they have to have a comment, that’s what they’re getting paid to do.
“Where current players, if they do everything right with all the money they’re earning on the back of past players standing up for their rights years ago, it’s now standing them in good stead to not work again.”
Teammates Steve Smith and Pat Cummins at Test training in Adelaide.Credit: Getty Images
Then there’s Australia’s Test cricket fans, who tend to hold more conservative views than the younger market CA is now trying to win.
Many would rather see Cummins devote his attention to rescuing his team with wickets instead of his views on climate change and Australia Day, though the World Cup and world Test championship-winning captain has proven his ability to do both.
All this sets the scene for one of the most important Tests Australia has played on home soil for many years.
Consequences are serious in Australian cricket when the men’s team lose at home. In the past 16 years, Australia have lost two in a row on these shores four times.
Brett Lee and the late Andrew Symonds did not wear the baggy green against after the 2008 Boxing Day Test defeat to South Africa. Test legend Matthew Hayden retired at the end of that series defeat. Two years later, Ricky Ponting quit as captain and there was a review into Australian cricket, which brought in a new coach and selection panel. There were five changes after the Hobart debacle of 2016 against South Africa.
“We cannot lose Adelaide,” Healy said. “The knives will sharpen big time if that happens.”
