Time for change: Australian cricket selectors need to follow Tony Popovic’s lead

June 20, 2026 — 6:00am

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Stand on any coastline and you will see two versions of the water. There is the sheltered lagoon – calm, predictable and safe. It changes little, but without the influx of the tide, it slowly loses vitality and turns stagnant. Then there is the open ocean. It is turbulent, unpredictable and carries inherent risk, yet it is the only place where true power is generated.

Selection in elite sports like Test cricket and World Cup football works on the same principle.

For too long, selection panels have treated generational transitions like that sheltered lagoon. They cling to experienced players for the comfort of predictability, tallying up years of service as if they were insurance policies against failure.

But experience becomes an illusion once a player has reached their ceiling. True selection is not a retrospective reward; it is an act of forecasting. If you want to build a team capable of withstanding the heaviest seas, you must leave the safety of the lagoon. You have to trust the raw, untamed energy of youth. Ignore it at your peril.

Every selector and captain eventually confronts a sobering truth: when a team is in transition or pressure mounts, the instinct is to retreat to the familiar. Selectors seek survival traits – players who have logged years on the domestic circuit – convincing themselves that time served equals international readiness.

To most, an unproven teenager represents risk. I see an........

© The Age