My Summer Cricket Wish List | Thebigtip

Children are told that if you close your eyes and wish really hard, dreams can come true. Well, I have decided to test this theory for the Australian cricket summer. I haved closed my eyes, concentrated until I nearly fainted and have concluded these are my five biggest wishes.

1. Ryan Harris gets hold of a super-secret, NASA developed, invisible shield

What can we say about Ryan Harris? Fast. Accurate. Outswing. All great attributes to have when opening the bowling for your country, but the one word that completes his cricketing description is "injured".

He has burst onto the international scene with rare, continued success but has put very few games together due to his frail body. He is clearly the country's best bowler of any form - the younger generations are not ready to replace him; Doug Bollinger's hype has turned out to be nothing but a foul wind; Mitchell Johnson cannot hit the cut stuff with the new ball; and Trent Copeland's great-aunty Mildred rushes onto batsmen quicker than he does.

The importance of the series against South Africa, New Zealand and India over the next five months is two fold. Firstly if Australia can win all three series they will be back in the top echelon of countries and ready to compete with England once again. Which is neccessary because not only in 2013 are the next series of Ashes Test matches scheduled but the propsed Test Championship is also to occur. Winning the three series will almost guarantee inclusion in that competition.

However they simply will not win all three series if Harris does not play in all of them. South Africa are struggling at the moment, winning only against the West Indies in a series since their successful tour of Australia at the end of 2008. They have top rated batters and bowlers, but have a dismal record against the Australians in their own country and their history suggests they crumble badly under pressure.  England showed how India's ageing superstars now react to fast swinging balls in their whitewash tour during the middle of this year and New Zealand batters generally get ahead of themselves far too early or miss the third ball on the stumps, or both.

It is set up for Harris to bowl us to victory.

2. Ricky Ponting should invoke the spirit of Bjorg, not Ali

Many champions, toward the end of their careers, resemble punch drunk boxers searching for one last knock out blow to be remembered by. Most never get there. Unfortunately the fans and the champion himself only remember the sad, humiliating, ending. Whilst bemused, we are impressed by those that give it away at the top of their game.

Ricky Ponting is now on that downward slope trying not to hit any trees on the descent. He probably has 20 chances left to end on a high note, to make that killer punch we would all like to see. Otherwise he will get remembered differently.

He has come out before this Test match against South Africa and said he still has centuries in him. Right now, he needs to gather perspective. That next big innings he has in him, whether it is the first test against South Africa or the last of the Indian tour, should be his last. To leave gracefully and fluently would top off his outstanding career.

There is no reason why he cannot either. Whilst not as good as ten years ago, he is hitting the ball better than any time during the previous two. For the fans alone, let us hope he gets there.

3. Mitchell Johnson to stay in the side

Mitchell is my favourite player, there I have said it. Unfortunately for me, and more importantly him, he is the next on the chopping block and for a player past the 30 years barrier he has a long road back if he is dropped.

He is Australia's talisman. When he has a shocker the team gets smashed. When he is unplayable Australia win. With the heroic spells now a distant memory he is bowling like the shell of himself.

The theory is that he bowled with a scrambled seam, which affected his consistency. Yet his biggest worry is that he cannot take the two years back listening to every man and his dog about irrelevant, trivial nonsense. He is on the verge of a disaster.

He needs to tell everyone where to go and get back to his basic self, the one that got him into the Australian side in the first place. By bowling fast he tore through England and South Africa a couple of times. He has won Test matches for his country by sending down thunderbolts not making sure he looks good for the coach when he reviews the tape during training.

And this confidence shattering advice has hindered his batting. He now tries to ocupy the crease, but he bats at number 8, is one of the cleanest strikers in the world, and he simply should just have a licence to swing from the ding. A quick one-on-one with Sir Viv " cricket is a see the ball, hit the ball kind of game" Richards and he should be sorted.

Fast bowlers are not genius human beings; they eat meat; thrive on bleeding batsmen; and play purely on instinct. They are not paid to think, in fact they should not even attend team meetings in case they open their mouths. Let Mitchell bowl fast, let him hurt batsmen and we may have just found the secret to world cricket domination (a secret known for a century.)

4. A leg spinner to be plucked, once again, from nowhere

If you are a finger spinner in the traditional sense, that is, you do not have any dislocating joints in your delivery arm, you will not win too many games for your country. If good enough, you will do a job, no doubt, but become a destructive world force, no way.

None of Australia's spinners tried since Shane Warne and Stuart MacGill (a somehow forgotten piece of the puzzle) have set the world alight. Whether they have been given the opportunity to do so is another debate entirely, but if we look at who has worn the cap there is no one with the ability to get consistent wickets.

The incumbent, Nathan Lyon, has the best technique of them all. He bowls a bit too fast to be really good, but he debuted exceptionally well. The fact, though, that he fell away dramatically in the subsequent games says that he is two years away from international standard. He literally needs a couple of domestic seasons of 300 plus overs to get the strength in his body.

But the reality is the Australian side is looking for another leg spinner. There is no one in domestic cricket, so the national set up should be scouring grade cricket to find the right person. Sadly the last person who took the time to believe in a young kid recently passed away. Maybe Terry Jenner's protege should be the one to take up his cause.

I am sure Australia's gossip magazines will be glad to have Liz Hurley in the country for a year whilst Shane Warne evaluates the spin options.

In the mean time Australia would be best served by playing a Luke Butterworth or Mitchell Marsh type of player who could bowl a handy few overs and strengthen the middle order. The spinners could then develop at their appropriate speed in state cricket. If they pick up consistent hauls of wickts then they get thrown a Test life line; but they are incapable of doing that because they are finger spinners.

5. The Death Of The Big Bash

It is a personal preference and one that is not shared by many, but I equate T20 cricket to that of top 50 music of this millenium: full of overpaid, untalented, wannabes, who are spat out of the system before they can blink. Nothing more than they deserve though.

It used to be that Blues artists from the Deep South of America would  sell their soul to the Devil to improve their music; nowadays the marketers and publicists of this diabolical form of the game are the children of Satan, come to recoup what is owed.

Back in the good old days, the early 2000's, there was a player called Gilchrist who used to walk when he knew he was out. Keith Miller, rated our greatest all rounder, used to hit a ball in the air if he thought the Australian's were being too ruthless on the opposition; Sir Donald Bradman, a character never questioned in the sport, wrote in his 'Art of Cricket' that we should leave the game in a better place than when we first joined it. Marketers from Cricket Australia are destroying these values by wanting quantity over quality.

This is a battle between good and pure evil.

And all for what? A handful of change from football's billions. The AFL and NRL sign mega television rights deals, they do not care about a few million during the summer months.

And who gets that money? Do grass roots clubs get a spoil of this delusional concept? Not on your life! Clubs receive no more funding than they did five years ago, in fact some regional associations have to outbid one another to get the privelidge of seeing first class cricket, a disgrace.

Will the stars of Australian cricket get a slice? No chance. The competition is full of past players and international sharks. Making up the numbers will be those not good enough to play the real format of the game.

One of Lucifer's offspring will eventually release a press statement that T20 cricekt gives x amount of dollars back to the players. But without this version the superstars of the game will be still earning over $1 million; the best first class players will still be earning over $100 000, not a bad pay day for someone not playing in the best league in the world.

The money goes off shore; or into CA advertising expenses, or state sqauds' photcopying expenses. The concept is nothing more than sensationalist greed. The head office's strategy lacks a complete sense of history. The game was played by gentlemen, AFL football was invented to keep these gentlement fit during the winter. Five day cricket was considered the pinnacle and those that played it were revered as national heroes. Onyl two characters were talked about during the depression years: Pharlap and The Don. One from the Sport of Kings and the other from the natioanl game. People talk about Balck Caviar now, but who cares if a grade player hits a not-good-enough-to-play-for-my-country international out of the ground? No one.

What we have now is a version of the game trying to compete with the borderline thuggery of the football codes. It will not work and the quicker T20 is consumed by the flames it rose from the better for Australian cricket. And if it claimed the CA marketing department at the same time, no one will complain.