Stuart Clark, a surprise omission?
Posted by Prof on February 15th, 2007
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Clark must be wondering what more he can do. He has had a dream run this season during the Ashes, consistently outperforming Glenn McGrath. In the CB series that followed, he picked up 10 wickets in 6 matches, a decent performance. But the reasons offered for him being dropped are: he has been expensive during the ODI games (true, it is unfortunate that he went for over 5 an over against the English team!), he lacks variety and the pace that the man who beat him to the team, Shaun Tait, possesses (he actually bowled at 160 kmph!!).
The Windies pitches are not very pacy and bouncy these days. You aren’t g0ing to get much from the wicket and under those conditions, I believe that a person who can pitch it in the right areas and keep the batsman under check is more likely to be successful. But then, that’s why they have Glenn McGrath! Stuart Clark probably missed out because he was too much like McGrath and when you have McGrath, do you want the imitator? He might be more energetic and have a better recent record but McGrath can be counted upon to deliver during the big games. And Shaun Tait is in the team to provide the variety.
In hindsight, the omission was probably not as surprising as news reports made it out to be. Sad for Stuart Clark but he is good and his time will come.
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