View from Down Under
THE MEL FARRELL COLUMN

The period leading into a World Cup is a boon for armchair selectors all over the world. The announcement of provisional squads brings forth an army of pundits, paid and unpaid, to bemoan exclusions and campaign for changes, armed with statistics, recent form guides and gut feel. Social media sites are flooded with ‘Pick your starting XI’ challenges as punters scrutinise the range of ODIs – meaningful only as warm-ups and auditions – taking place across the globe.
In the modern era, influenced by aggressive scoring, batting depth is scrutinised,...