Aussie selectors need to get it right
Cricket 
/ Editor / 01 December 2009 / Leave a comment Bet Now
While Hodge was undoubtedly denied greater opportunities at Test level, his departure highlights the need to ensure similarly gifted players aren´t ruthlessly cut adrift from the national team without sound justification.
Batsman Phil Hughes has found himself in a similar situation to the retiring Brad Hodge. Christopher Thomas says selectors should be careful in their approach to the young New South Welshman.
The news that Brad Hodge is set to retire from first class cricket should give the Australian selectors pause for thought.
At 34, Hodge is the same age as Mike Hussey, Simon Katich and Ricky Ponting. But
while that trio continue to enjoy success in the Test arena, the prolific Victorian run-getter is taking his bat and ball and going home. Hodge´s realisation that he will never again wear the baggy green cap has drained any desire to continue playing at a domestic level.
It´s a sad end, because for all his achievements in the game - more than 17,000 first-class runs, 51 first-class hundreds and a Test double hundred - Hodge will forever carry that most unwanted tag of being the unluckiest cricketer of his generation.
In his third Test, he scored an unbeaten 203 against South Africa in Perth in 2005, but just two Tests later he was dumped from the side to tour South Africa.
He would play just one more Test, in 2008, as a replacement for an injured Matthew Hayden. Hodge´s final numbers - six Tests, with an average of 55.88 - only indicate what might have been at the top level. He continued to pile on the runs for Victoria after being sacked from the national side, but his time had passed.
Which brings us back to the selectors. While Hodge was undoubtedly denied greater opportunities at Test level, his departure highlights the need to ensure similarly gifted players aren´t ruthlessly cut adrift from the national team without sound justification.
And yes, we are referring to NSW opener Phil Hughes. He has only just turned 21, but he has already experienced the fickle hand of the national selection panel. After twin centuries in his second Test match, he was dumped three games later, despite an average of 52.44. Sound familiar?
Of course, Hughes has time on his side. But there are already concerns that his premature axing has adversely affected his game. Word from the NSW camp is that he has been unnecessarily tinkering with a technique that was providing runs by the truckload less than a year ago.
At present, all-rounder Shane Watson is keeping Hughes out of the team. Watson has played 12 tests, has not scored a century, and averages 26 with the bat. He is a handy player, but he is not a Test opener.
The sooner that Hughes is restored to the top of the Test order, the better. If given the chance - and now is the perfect time to recall him, against a weak West Indies´attack - he could well become the leading Australian batsman over the next decade.
But it seems that in the short-term at least, Hughes, like Hodge, could be left scratching his head as he endures long days in the Sheffield Shield competition, with plenty of time to ponder the mysterious ways of the Australian selectors.
