BY BOZZA

They’ve done it again.

Not content with their summer of selection shocks, the NSP has again managed to surprise with their choice of replacement for the injured Chris Lynn. A mere 1084 days after Cameron White played his last ODI, the man known as Bear has been brought back in from the cold.

“He’s in very good form as his figures demonstrate, he’s playing very well,” national selector Trevor Hohns said.

“He’s one of the leading run-scorers in the KFC BBL, he’s experienced, he’s a very smart cricketer and he’s a good fielder.

“He ticks all the boxes for what we need at this stage.”

National Selector Trevor Hohns on Cameron White’s Recall 11.01.18

While The Sportress share the general mood of excitement at the veteran Bushranger’s international exile coming to an end, his selection is another change of direction in a long series of inconsistent decisions. If you won’t take our word for it, read what the man himself thought of his chances of a recall to the national side earlier this summer.

I think if I was going to get picked I probably would have been picked in the past couple of years, I would have thought, with my white-ball form.

There’s always hope but I don’t think so.

Cameron White on his chances of Australian selection this summer

You can understand how he’d come to this conclusion when you cast your mind back just 11 months ago. Despite being both, the Australian Domestic Cricketer of the Year and the Leading Run-Scorer in the Matador Cup with an average of 76.16, White was overlooked for Australia’s series with New Zealand. The selectors somehow deciding to leave the man who scored more runs than any other at domestic level at home, while taking a man who hadn’t even represented his state.

The utter nonsense of this decision saw Trevor Hohns read straight from the ‘misinform, contradict and/or denigrate playbook’ that we wrote about last week.

Cameron has had plenty of opportunities … he has had plenty of opportunities in the past and it’s probably fair to say performed okay without being earth-shattering.

Trevor Hohns on Cameron White 31.01.17

Hohns’ comments, another example of the NSP playing the man when confronted with their hypocrisy or fuzzy logic, came in part as a response to White’s assertion that Shield and One Day Cup form was less highly regarded than BBL performances by the selectors. “You can get picked to play for Australia in any format out of Big Bash, really. It doesn’t make a lot of sense,” White said. Ironically, White’s recall goes a long way to validating his claims and further illustrating the ridiculousness of Hohns’ huffing and puffing.

When putting together the First Test squad, the selectors made a note of mentioning Shaun Marsh’s one day cup form when explaining his selection. Yet having rewarded his form against the white ball with a baggy green, it wasn’t enough for him to earn ODI selection.

White on the other hand, had a much more modest One Day Cup and finds himself back in the ODI frame. Having had his claims ignored and his ODI career derided by the Chairman of Selectors last year, White averaged nearly half of what he did last season to earn his longed for recall.

While it earned White a rebuke for saying it last year, it is without question that Big Bash performances seem to speak loudest at the selection table. Without any real longterm plan or vision, the NSP seem to be as wowed by the BBL as the crowds flocking to the ground.

The NSP has had a golden summer despite the questiomable logic they have deployed along the way. Is it too much to ask that this shock decision pays off too but that consistency and reason is applied a little more frequently in the future? Having lost more international games than they won in 2017 despite the Bradman-esque performances of Steve Smith, it might be worth a try if Australia is to reclaim its mantle as the world’s most dominant cricketing force.