David Boon believes his selection panel must show faith in a core group of players during Australia’s rebuilding phase
Brydon Coverdale in Johannesburg24-Feb-2009
David Boon feels one shouldn’t read too much into Bryce McGain’s performance in Potchefstroom © Getty Images
David Boon, the selector travelling with Australia’s squad in SouthAfrica, believes his panel must show faith in a core group of playersduring Australia’s rebuilding phase. Boon and his fellow selectorshave a few key decisions to make ahead of Thursday’s first Test inJohannesburg, with the make-up of the attack the major issue at avenue that traditionally suits the fast men.Ben Hilfenhaus and Doug Bollinger both bowled well in the tour matchbut unless Australia use a four-man pace attack one is likely to missout, while a call also needs to be made on the squad’s spin stocks.Whatever the selectors come up with, Boon wants the four-man selection panel toshow the same sort of backing that he and his fellow players receivedduring the mid 1980s, when a rebuilding phase led to the discovery ofstars like Steve Waugh and Craig McDermott.”The selectors back then were fantastic,” Boon said in Johannesburg.”When we went through that period they said, ‘right we can’t keepchopping and changing.’ They basically picked 16 or 18 guys and hadthem in their minds and for the next three or four years we all playedand we knew if we missed we weren’t going to be flicked.”It gave Billy [McDermott] the chance to improve as a young19-year-old bowler, Steve was very up and down through those formativeyears, but they stuck with him because everybody knew there was talentthere. We stuck together and I think we are going to do the same here.I firmly believe we have young players who are going to step up to themark and do really well as long as we are patient.”His comments came as Australia built up to the Wanderers match, whichwill be the 15th Test in a row in which they have failed to field thesame side in consecutive Tests. Boon said it was not a venue wherespin was likely to play a major role although he felt Bryce McGain’sstruggles in Potchefstroom, where he took 2 for 126 from 19 overs,should not be held against him.”I don’t think you can take one performance into account,” Boon said.”You look at the balance of the team and how we want to approach thisgame. We’ve seen in our domestic cricket that he’s a really finebowler and on that sort of wicket he might have looked a bit ordinary.It didn’t move too far off the straight and narrow for him and the guy[Imran Tahir] who bowled for them as well, our guys played him prettyeasily so I wouldn’t take too much out of that.”However, Boon was impressed by the efforts of the part-time offspinnerMarcus North, who collected a career-best 6 for 69 in the secondinnings when McGain was off the field with a stomach bug. It will bedifficult for the selectors to leave North out of the first Test aftera performance that also included two half-centuries, but they need todecide if he is capable of being a frontline spin option or simply abackup.”He’s handy, we’ve known that for a long time,” Boon said. “He does arole and he does it well and I thought that even though they werebeing aggressive he landed it well so they didn’t get away with it. Aswe saw with a lot of batters, clearing the pickets wasn’t hard and hemade it hard and took those wickets plus a couple of legit ones.”If North plays at No. 6, it’s difficult to see where Andrew McDonaldcould squeeze into the side despite being the incumbent from theSydney Test. The selectors are unlikely to name a starting XI untilWednesday.