Counterpoint: send them home!

This is not to support the current regime - it is difficult to see any progress in many players in the test team under Mickey Arthur. And it is difficult to see improvement in this rabble over the past year. Often, the simplest call in cases like this is to blame this on the coach. And, from the outside looking in - one can definitely see that the new regime has failed to bring along some of the teams senior players - with the exception of Michael Clarke. Notable amongst this group is Shane Watson.

This is not to say that the batting lineup that will be trotted out for the third test will be watchable. While there is probably some semblance of the top six that will go to the Ashes in Cowan, Warner, Hughes and Clarke - the long awaited test match return of one Steve Smith should fill everyone with dread. Glen Maxwell also appears to be a Smith level douche.

Say what you will about this rabble though, at least they did their fucking homework. To me, what speaks more about this "homework" assignment is that most of the squad did do it. Ed Cowan spent five minutes doing his homework. David Warner spent half a day opening Power Point. Or got Cowan to do his. And then stole his lunch money.

To me, that a couple of senior players didn't manage theirs demonstrates that these senior players may be a big factor in the malaise that seems to have struck this team in the last six months. That two guys who have spent the last month ghost writing Michael Clarke's tour diary couldn't do this is even more damning.

If the message from Arthur was along the lines of:

• We've been comprehensively smashed in the last two tests.
• Morale is broken.
• You might not like the idea of putting together 5 powerpoint slides that explain:
• what has gone wrong;
• what you need to do better; and
• how we can pull together to win the Ashes.
• But it's important.
• And if you can't do this, then you are a big part of the problem and can fuck right off.

Then I have no problem with this decision.

Rather than blaming the system, as ex-players are wont to do, one could simply make the case that Australian cricket's poor results in the last six months have more to do with a general lack of elite talent and a tough schedule  - South Africa at home, India away - that this team isn't up for.