Argus Review: Selectors Hilditch, Chappell & Coach Nielson sacked

[Crookbond]

Hilditch gone as head selector, Chappell removed from panel, Nielsen's future uncertain http://www.espncricinfo.com/australia/content/current/story/528309.html

Andew Hilditch's tenure as Australia's chairman of selectors is over after the Cricket Australia board decided to appoint a full-time national selector. On a day of major upheaval for Australian cricket, the CA board has also removed Greg Chappell from the selection panel, while the coach Tim Nielsen is in danger of losing his job. The CA board has ratified several key recommendations from the Argus review into Australia's team performance following their Ashes debacle last summer. A five-man selection panel will be created with a full-time chairman and two independent selectors, while the captain and coach have also been given increased responsibility and will become selectors. The national talent manager, Chappell, won't be part of the group. Jack Clarke, the CA chairman, said the newly-created position of national selector would be a full-time role and had therefore ruled out Hilditch, who also works as a solicitor in Adelaide, although Clarke was unsure whether Hilditch would apply to stay on the panel as one of the two part-time selectors. "The position is a full-time role," Clarke said. "Andrew is not available to work full time. He has just started up a new legal practice so he is not available to apply for the role. I haven't spoken to Andrew about [whether he wants to stay on the panel]. He's certainly unavailable for the top job." Hilditch said in a statement: "I fully support the recommendation of the review panel to appoint a full-time chairman of the national selection panel and the appointment of the captain and coach as members of the panel. It is a structure I supported as appropriate when interviewed by the review panel and I think it will serve Australian cricket well going into the future. "They were always going to be difficult years as chairman with the exodus of so many great players but I have given it my all and always acted to the best of my ability to achieve the best outcome for Australian cricket. Once the new head selector is appointed I look forward to spending a lot more time with family and friends and my growing legal practice. It has been a privilege and an honour to serve Australian cricket." Nielsen and Australia's captain, Michael Clarke, will immediately be made selectors for the ongoing tour of Sri Lanka, while Chappell, who is with the team as the selector on duty, will temporarily remain in the job while the new structure is finalised. However, Nielsen's future is uncertain, with the coach's position to be expanded to become a more senior role, leading the overall coaching strategy for Australian cricket, and he is not guaranteed of getting the job. "Coaching the Australian team is a tough job anyway with the travel and that sort of thing," Jack Clarke said. "It's going to take some additional time and skill sets to put a strategy for the whole of Australian coaching. We need to align the coaching so that there's one philosophy which the head coach has got to be able to articulate and get that through to the state coaches and all other coaches in the system. "Tim can apply for the job and he may well get the job. But it's a different role, and in a restructure, you don't just give someone the job in a new role." Another key change will be the appointment of a general manager of team performance, who will report to the CEO and oversee coaching, selection and the Centre of Excellence. The position is similar to the role Hugh Morris now fills for the England team, a job the ECB created after the Schofield Report into their disastrous Ashes series in 2006-07. CA directors were handed an executive summary of the Argus review findings at the conclusion of the first day of Thursday's board meeting, before Argus led a detailed presentation to the board on Friday morning. The recommendations stemmed from a most exhaustive review undertaken into the drastically waning fortunes of the Australian side, culminating in an Ashes defeat that included an unprecedented three innings hidings. Australia are fifth on the ICC's Test rankings, and are in danger of missing out on a place in the inaugural Test match World Championship, to be held in 2013. The team is in the midst of a tour of Sri Lanka, the first Test assignment for the new captain Michael Clarke, and players and officials - including Chappell, the selector on duty - were briefed on the review findings before public discussions commenced. Chaired by Argus, the review panel included the former captains Allan Border, Mark Taylor and Steve Waugh, plus Malcolm Speed, formerly the chief executive of Cricket Australia and more recently the ICC. Speed's CA successor, James Sutherland, sat in on the process as an ex-officio, non-voting member, but interviewees were allowed to request his absence if they felt uncomfortable discussing problems in front of their current boss. A total of 61 interviews were conducted, across a spectrum that included players, coaches, officials, media and other well-placed observers. Senior figures from other sports were also consulted, including the multiple-premiership winning Australian Rules football coach Mick Malthouse.

[ganeshran]

Crap, they removed Chappell.. Now Aussies will start dominating again :nervous:

[Moncy]

YAY!!!!! FINALLY!!! THEY GOT RID OF THOSE SCUMBAGS!!! Hope they will recall Katich for the upcoming Aus-SL test series. :dance::yay::dance:

[Crookbond]

YAY!!!!! FINALLY!!! THEY GOT RID OF THOSE SCUMBAGS!!! Hope they will recall Katich for the upcoming Aus-SL test series. :dance::yay::dance:

I think this is something which may not happen but the Argus review was really thorough. Can we have it in India?

[achilles]

At least one player complained that Chappell told him he was in the team when in fact he had been overlooked. Chappell was also accused by another player of giving "mixed messages".

:haha: This is Greg Chappell for you. I think the issue is he gives very frank opinions but doesn't ensure that the comfort level is good enough for the opinion to be taken in the right spirit. Ideally, Greg would be thinking, "If I blast this guy, he will go out there and give 120% effort, prove himself and prove me wrong. I win". The person however thinks, "So this is how I'm treated when in bad form".

[Crookbond]

YAY!!!!! FINALLY!!! THEY GOT RID OF THOSE SCUMBAGS!!! Hope they will recall Katich for the upcoming Aus-SL test series. :dance::yay::dance:

I think this is something which may not happen but the Argus review was really thorough. Can we have it in India?

[Crookbond]

Taboo broken as Australian coach empowered http://www.espncricinfo.com/australia/content/current/story/528482.html

Australian cricket has confronted one of its great taboos by handing selection duties to the national coach, an enormously powerful role not performed since Bob Simpson was removed from the national panel in 1994. At the time the incoming captain Mark Taylor felt that Simpson exerted too much of an influence over Australian cricket as a prominent coach and selector alongside the less conspicuous captaincy of Allan Border. But now, as members of the Don Argus-led review into Australian cricket, Taylor and Border have recommended that the coach be part of a new panel of five that will also include the national captain, Michael Clarke. Among a raft of drastic changes to the structure of the national program, this one spoke loudest for how much times and attitudes had changed. The incumbent coach, Tim Nielsen, and Clarke will immediately take on selection responsibility while on the current tour of Sri Lanka, but a new senior coach will be appointed in due course. Australia's vastly experienced fielding coach, Steve Rixon, and the Western Australia coach, Mickey Arthur, are both expected to express interest in the position. "In my time in cricket administration it is probably the biggest chestnut, there's been a change of view on whether coaches and captains should be selectors many times," Cricket Australia's chairman Jack Clarke said. "I think the three captains on there probably would've had a certain view at one stage, interestingly they all came to the view to make that person accountable and the structures are all about accountability. To make those people accountable they need to be selectors, and the board accepted that." Argus, who spoke as much of corporate dictums as cricketing ones, said the matter of communication between the selectors and the players had been so poor as to necessitate the formal inclusion of the coach and captain in the process. "One of the things that came up was the communication between the players and the selectors and I'm sure you've heard that, and what we've done is to try to get adult conversations going around the panel of the selectors and the players," Argus said. "Normally communication solves most insecurities, and if we achieve that, that'll be a huge step forward." The increased influence of the coach and captain closely mirrors the power wielded by the England captain Andrew Strauss and coach Andy Flower, architects of Australia's Ashes defeat last summer. The coach's broader role is also similar to the model now popular globally and at state level, though the Australian set-up has continually differed from this due to the strongly divergent views over Simpson's time in charge. Argus denied that the England model had been a major influence, preferring to conclude that it simply reflected the best and most functional model for high performance and accountability. "I got an email overnight from a good friend of mine in England and he said 'now that we're No. 1, would you like some input into your report' and I said 'as a matter of fact I was thinking of putting in a recommendation that we get a Zimbabwean coach and four South Africans into the side'," Argus joked. "The answer is no, it had no bearing on it. I had a look at that [England] as a passing phase, but if you have a look at the structure and you have a look at the corporate structures of high performance organisations around the world, you'll find some similarities." "What we've done is to try to get adult conversations going around the panel of the selectors and the players. Normally communication solves most insecurities, and if we achieve that, that'll be a huge step forward" Greg Chappell, the selector currently on duty in Sri Lanka, will be stripped of that role but is welcome to continue as the national talent manager, a position now far less powerful that one he had fashioned over the previous 12 months. It is unclear whether or not Chappell will elect to continue in his modified position. Tensions between Chappell and the players bubbled under the surface during the summer, and Sutherland admitted that there were times he too was not welcome in the dressing room. Famed for wanting a free hand in whatever role he takes in cricket, Chappell must now adjust his methods and concentrate on talent identification, or move on. "In terms of whether Greg is happy or not, that's something you can ask him," CA chief executive James Sutherland said. "I've spoken to him ahead of these recommendations being handed down. So he understands what the board has recommended and what it has adopted in that respect, and we will go on from there. "He may well have some decisions to make himself about that, but that's really in his hands. It was a brief conversation, I had a lot of people to speak to today, I was delivering a message to give him an update, he hasn't seen the report, so he needs time to digest that. "It was seen as important that there is a segregation of duty between the national selector and the national talent manager, such that the national talent manager was no longer a selector. Nothing to do with personality, purely a structural decision that best divests accountability." Accountability was a major theme of the day, as CA sought to change a structure that had clearly lost its edge and effectiveness across years of success, leaving it quite unprepared to deal with the aftermath of that era. "The lack of accountability and the objective of really performing was something that wasn't in the jargon that was coming through, and that's from what I'm used to outside, so that's an outsider's view," Argus said. "If the national team can concentrate on starting to get a winning culture going again that's a good start, and it doesn't need to be distracted by all the noise about selection and other stuff that they read, I'm sure that unsettles them. This gets the structure settled down and they can concentrate on what they do best. That's really what it'll be all about." Clarke and Sutherland also emphasised that the search for the head coach, full-time chairman of selectors and general manager high performance would all be global ones, with no preference for local or internal candidates.

[Crookbond]

A different type of clean sweep http://www.espncricinfo.com/magazine/content/current/story/528483.html

"I was thinking of putting in a recommendation that we put in a Zimbabwean coach and get four South Africans into the side," Don Argus joked to the media as he explained his review into Australian cricket. After the polite laughter died down, Argus clarified that no, his panel hadn't in any way copied the structure of England, the new No.1 Test team. Could've fooled us. From the creation of a new general manager of team performance (see Morris, Hugh) to the appointment of a full-time national selector (see Miller, Geoff), to a review of central contracting (Australia award 25, England only 11), the similarities between the Argus review and the Schofield report, which came after England's 2006-07 Ashes disaster, are striking. And so they should be. As much as Australia's players and coaching staff would hate to admit it, England are now the benchmark. The 3-1 Ashes drubbing last summer was just as embarrassing as the 5-0 whitewash inflicted on England four years prior, probably more so given how familiar Australia had become with success at home. The only clean sweep in Australian cricket right now has come from the Argus broom. Andrew Hilditch, the chairman of selectors, is gone. Greg Chappell, the national talent manager, has been dumped from the selection panel. Tim Nielsen, the coach, must reapply for his job, and could well be out of the picture by the Australian summer. That's on top of the existing personnel changes since this time last year: a new captain, a new bowling coach, a new fielding coach and a new team manager. And just for good measure, David Boon quit as a selector and Simon Katich was axed during the off-season. The departure of Hilditch was the most widely expected change. When his panel didn't offer Katich a new contract this year, Hilditch was asked about his future as the chairman of selectors. His response was: "I'll just keep doing it until someone wants me to stop." Australian fans had been asking him to stop for years; now the powers that be have done so. Not that Hilditch has been sacked per se, but his role has been made full-time and he has previously made it known he is unwilling to give up his day job as a solicitor. His five-year tenure since replacing Trevor Hohns as the chairman of selectors in April 2006 has been tumultuous, and ultimately unsuccessful as the team slipped to No. 5 on the Test rankings. During those five years, Australia handed out a new baggy green roughly once every second Test; 23 debutants were used in 50 matches, compared to 14 debutants in 66 Tests in the previous five years. The rebuilding process after the departure of champions like Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath, Justin Langer, Adam Gilchrist and Matthew Hayden was fraught. Hilditch's panel had particular trouble with the spin position, choosing 12 Test spinners during his five years at the helm, which could soon become 13 if Nathan Lyon makes his debut in Sri Lanka next month. Under Hilditch, the panel made a critical mistake by not choosing a spinner for the final Ashes Test at The Oval in 2009, when the England offspinner Graeme Swann used a dusty pitch to take eight wickets, and the defeat cost Australia the urn. The following Ashes series wasn't handled any better. They picked a 17-man squad for the first Test at the Gabba, which gave England a clear indication that the Australian selectors weren't confident who were their frontline players, and then they axed the established and consistent Nathan Hauritz on the eve of the series. Hilditch exacerbated the problem when he said after the series debacle that the selectors had "done a very good job". Whoever replaces Hilditch - Rod Marsh and Hohns are among the possibilities - should learn from his mistakes. Plan for the future and stick with new players for more than a couple of matches. Don't take crazy gambles on the eve of a major series, like picking a one-day specialist such as Xavier Doherty for the Ashes based on the flawed logic. And don't unsettle the players. That's one of the criticisms that has been levelled at Chappell, who according to the Daily Telegraph was banned from the Australian dressing room while the team was batting, such was his disconcerting influence. Like Hilditch, Chappell won't be part of the new selection panel. Nielsen may or may not be. He must reapply for the new coaching job, which includes a position on the selection panel, and if the buck stops with the coach, he could be in trouble. The new mentor will have the task of directing coaching strategies all the way down Australia's pathway. Given the concerns raised over the past few months by Ricky Ponting and Langer about the standards of domestic cricket, it's a vitally important role. England didn't get all of these issues right straight away. After 2006-07, Peter Moores was made coach but was gone soon enough. Not everything will fall into place immediately. But the first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem. By accepting the advice of Don Argus, Cricket Australia is at least heading in the right direction.

[Crookbond]

CA contributed to 'panic' before Ashes - Watson http://www.espncricinfo.com/australia/content/current/story/533686.html

Shane Watson, the Australia vice-captain, has criticised Cricket Australia and the selectors for contributing to a "growing sense of panic" among the players in the lead-up to the Ashes series in 2010-11. Australia were comprehensively beaten 3-1 in the Ashes, their first series defeat to England at home since 1986-87, prompting the Argus review and the subsequent changes adopted by board. Watson lashed out at the decision to announce a provisional squad of 17, 10 days before the first Ashes Test in Brisbane. ''I felt there was a growing sense of panic all over the place which, to be honest, wasn't helped by Cricket Australia announcing a bigger than usual Ashes squad," Watson wrote in his book Watto, as quoted by the Sydney Morning Herald. "I don't know why the squad was named that early; there was still one more round of first-class games as well as the Australia A game against England to be completed there was a sense of panic and that spread throughout the team.'' The chopping and changing of bowlers during the Test series meant "they were absolutely sh*****g themselves every time they went out to bowl, because bowlers are the first ones to get dropped when things go wrong. "Our batters were failing throughout and nothing happened." Since the Ashes defeat, Australian cricket has undergone significant changes, with coach Tim Nielsen and chairman of selectors Andrew Hilditch stepping down.

[MCcricket]

LOL we cannot have ARGUS review , if that happens not only our selectors, but our BCCI , who knows member of State Associations, firstly Srikant then Dhoni will be sacked lol:hysterical: Chappel though a great batsmen he is a curse for any cricket team to be attached to him , we are still suffering from his mistakes lol,atleast the Aussies now see what the Indians were saying lol I THINK THE ONLY COUNTRY THAT MIGHT BENEFIT FROM HIS EXPERTISE COULD BE PAKISTAN , NO ONE KNOWS WHAT GOES ON WITH PCB