We banked on http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Timothy-John-Nielsen-c94043 – Cricket News Update
Former national team coach, Tim Nielsen said that the Australian team banked on Stuart MacGill to replace spin legend, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Shane-Keith-Warne-c89672 for at least the next two years.
The Kangaroo faced a surprisingly lean period since the retirement of Warne, who hung his boots after the team sweeped old rivals http://www.senore.com/Cricket/England-c56013 5-0 in the 2007 Ashes series, on their home turf.
Nielsen, while talking to ESPNCricinfo stated the issue regarding spin only arose when McGill abruptly announced his withdrawal front Test arena in mid-2008, which created a problem for the team as they had no one to take immediate charge.
The 40-year-old spinner ended his playing days on tour of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/West-Indies-c760 in 2008, which meant that the team had to rely upon rookies to lead the line, as far as the spin department is concerned.
"What really was the issue was we counted on MacGill to play through until the end of 2009 really, and when that changed, it put us under a bit of pressure from a spin bowling stocks point of view, we had young blokes who weren't quite ready and maybe thrown
in the deep end a bit early.
“ At different times there were decisions made that it might actually hurt them more to keep going rather than just yank them out and let them play a bit more Shield cricket," said Nielsen.
A spinner of MacGill's skills would have been the first choice for any team, apart from his own, where unfortunately, he always had to play under the shadow of Shane Warne, a legend in his own right.
However, by the time Warny finished his career; Mac was already in his mid-30s and had to face a series of serious injuries, which prevented him from prolonging his stint with the national side. Still the leg-spinner managed to ply his trade in 44 Test matches,
taking over 200 wickets at 29.02.
After his retirement, the team never found a spinner, who could take up the added responsibility, with the likes of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Beau-Casson-c47541 and Jason Krejza all failing to stamp a regular place in the side.
Tags: