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Axed Martyn saves serve for selector

Source: The Australian - September 23, 2005

DAMIEN MARTYN's overwhelming disappointment at being dropped from the Test team has been magnified by public comments about his axing from new selector Merv Hughes.

The WA veteran is hurt that Hughes, a former team-mate, claimed Martyn had to prove himself again at state level only months after completing the best year-and-a-half of his Test career.

"I'm disappointed by the comments I've read (from Hughes)," Martyn told The Australian yesterday in his first interview since being dropped. "I'm not going back to play for WA feeling I've got anything to prove. I'm going back to WA hoping to help some young kids there, put back in, and hopefully see some of those young WA guys play for Australia.

"That's the next stage for me."

So highly did the selectors regard Martyn on the eve of an ultimately disappointing Ashes tour just four months ago that he was given a new two-year contract and rated the fifth best player in the country.

Now Martyn, 34 next month, believes it will take something "extra special" for him to play Test cricket again.

The No.4 batsman, who averaged 40 or better in his previous nine series before managing less than 20 per innings in England, believes he has established his credentials as a Test cricketer.

Martyn felt that Hughes had shown a lack of recognition or respect for the consistency of his performances leading into the Ashes.

"It hurts in the sense that I've been playing Test cricket in the last four or five years where I've done it all, particularly the last 18 months," Martyn said.

"I was averaging almost a century every second Test so this has been my first hiccup in that period. And because it's such a long series it stands out more. If it was a three-Test series there would be no problem.

"You spend your career trying to move forward, ticking off all the little boxes as you go. You prove yourself against pace bowling, against spin bowling, in Test cricket as opposed to just one-day cricket, under pressure, first innings, second innings, all the little things that are important to be a successful Test cricketer.

"You don't want it to end like it does, but unless you make a century and walk off it's probably going to end this way at some stage. You're always going to be dropped when you're not making runs."

There are significant recent examples of Australian cricketers playing far worse for far longer at an older age and surviving.

While Matthew Hayden, also 34 next month, has been allowed to set a new precedent of 30 innings without a century before willing himself to three figures in the last Test, Mark Waugh tops the list of opportunities as an ageing player.

He once averaged 7.25 on a tour of Sri Lanka, a Test series Australia lost, but inevitably survived. It was part of the remarkably generous package Mark Waugh had during his last dozen series, when he averaged 35 or better in just three of them before being sacked aged 37.

In his case, Martyn scored 65 in the second innings of the first Test at Lord's, helping to set up a winning total, before struggling through his next seven innings with a top score of 28.

To make matters worse, he received two dreadful leg before wicket decisions, thick-edging the ball into his pads.

"I know I under-performed but after the past 18 months I thought I might have received more than four Test matches grace," he said.

This is particularly so given Australia's next Test will be the Super Series six-day match against the Rest of the World in Sydney next month. Having been so much a part of helping to maintain the No.1 ranking which earned Australia the right to host the Super Series, Martyn is sad he will not be a part of it.

Martyn is still part of the one-day squad to play Super Series matches at Melbourne's Telstra Dome early next month, but his dumping from the Test side has left him wondering about his future in the short form of the game, too.

"This just shows that once you're at a certain age that it's an unknown," he said. "I'm 34 next month and the World Cup is in 18 months so I don't know what's going to happen."

With chairman of selectors Trevor Hohns in Pakistan watching Australia A and Martyn in Margaret River, where phone reception is dodgy, Martyn thought both he and Matthew Hayden had been dumped from the one-day team.

"My initial reaction was that the one-day side was probably going to change moving forward and I was going to miss out on the one-dayers and I'd probably be in the Test side," he recalled.

"But, without making runs, you know that you're under pressure.

"So when I found out I was in the one-day side but not the Test team it was a real shock. I thought it would be the other way around."

While he will do everything in his power to try to regain a Test place, Martyn believes he has suffered the same fate as Darren Lehmann, who was dropped at the beginning of the year aged 34.

"You've got to be honest with yourself. It would almost be something extra special to get back," he said.

While disappointed with his axing and the public comments which followed, Martyn has endorsed the selectors' decision to fundamentally change the balance of the side.

While the selection of Shane Watson as an all-rounder means the number of specialist batting places will reduce from six to five, Martyn believes it is important that captain Ricky Ponting is given more bowling options.

With the rapid demise of Jason Gillespie and Michael Kasprowicz, who have been dropped from both squads, the raw-ness of new speedster Shaun Tait, the ageing of priceless duo Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne and the inconsistency of Brett Lee, Watson's steady fast medium pacers could prove increasingly important.

"We just don't have the attack we used to. Punter (Ponting) might need some help with someone who can bowl and bat at six," Martyn said, highlighting the imposing force of Andrew Flintoff with bat and ball during the Ashes series.

Martyn also strongly endorsed Lehmann's decision to play on as captain of South Australia and wants to do the same with WA for the next two seasons.

"I think with all the investment of money that the board puts into us, it's important we do go back into state cricket," Martyn said.

"That's not to clog up spots for young guys but I think you've got to have some senior players back there.

"Things like change-room talk with the younger guys can be missed. SA will benefit enormously from having 'Boof' (Lehmann) back with his experience and knowledge."

- MALCOLM CONN