Graeme Swann Bowling Graeme Swann Bowling
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 You mention Australia’s rebuilding – has the process been slower and darker than you expected?

No – you can’t maintain form when you take key personnel away from a cricket team. I mean, why wouldn’t we drop to fifth on the Test rankings? That’s the way I look at it.Think of the number of match-winners that fall away from a side when you lose five players like Warne, McGrath, Gilchrist, Hayden and Langer. Look at those two opening bats, for example – they’re second to none in Australia’s opening partnership records. And look who we replaced them with. You’ve got Simon Katich – a bloke who came back into the Test side after making 1500 runs at number-three for NSW. And then you’ve got Shane Watson – an all-rounder, a hell of a good batsman I might add, but a bloke who’s primarily an all-rounder. So people talk about how we’ve replaced Hayden and Langer, but have we really replaced them, or have we just thrown a couple of makeshift blokes in there, both of whom could be better suited to batting down the order?

I mean, who’s the next pure opener in Australian cricket? Who’s the next pure batsman among the kids? Is it the young Callum Ferguson from SA? How many first-class centuries has Callum Ferguson got? How many first-class centuries did Mark Waugh have before he got chosen to play for Australia? He had plenty. All these kids we’re talking about now haven’t done a heck of a lot in first-class cricket. And that’s what we need to look at – first-class cricket, not one-day cricket. There’s very little I can see that’s come through in the last decade. It still seems to me that Brad Hodge, at 35, is one of the best few batsmen in the country outside the Test team. And that shouldn’t be the case.

So this is a failing in Australian cricket, this tendency to judge young talent on their numbers in ODIs and T20s rather than their Sheffield Shield stats?

Look, I’m convinced that if you can play the longest forms of the game, you can play any form of the game. I don’t care where the game of cricket goes, the most important thing about batting, bowling and ‘keeping is to have a good technique, … You’ve got to indoctrinate these kids with the right techniques. If you don’t, you’re not going to have good 20-over cricketers, you’re not going to have good 50-over cricketers and you’re not going to have good split-innings cricketers.

We need these kids to be making mountains of runs and taking loads of wickets in first-class cricket. Our selectors need to be able to go to a ground and watch a young bloke grind out a hundred in tough conditions. You know, they need to see him let the ball go if it’s bouncing and swinging, instead of trying to open the face and run it down to third man. I see that time and time again, and that’s why teams get bowled out when the conditions in the first two hours are tough. Sometimes you can’t make 120 runs in the first session. Sometimes, to survive, you’ve got to let the ball go. And I don’t think we teach that too well anymore.

Speaking of selections - Haddin or Paine for the Ashes?

Well, that’s not for me to decide … Paine hasn’t done much wrong, but in the same breath, Haddin’s one of the most explosive batsmen in the country. He’s as good a hitter of the cricket ball as anyone. So if he’s fit he’s probably still the selectors’ first choice. But good on Tim Paine for putting a hell of a lot of pressure on Haddin – that makes for a better cricket team. If it’s tough for the selectors to pick an XI because they’ve got 15 blokes putting their hand up, pressing hard, then that’s good for Australian cricket. If there’s no pressure from those not in the team, then it’s no good for Australian cricket …