Chop chop chop

If I were still a sports journo, I would still have a weekly column. And it would be about cricket this week. Specifically, the Australian Test team. It would go a little something like this:

IT is time for the Australian selectors to find their axe.
The one they used to end the careers of Ian Healy, Steve Waugh and Jason Gillespie.
Between now and the Sydney Test, they should be busy swinging it through the Aussie team like David Foster in a timber yard.
Hayden, 37, has made just one double-figure score this summer.
CHOP.
Lee is injured, out of form and his head's not right.
CHOP.
Symonds may have played his last Test for Australia. He's 33, injured, batting poorly and not bowling.
CHOP.
Hussey needs to make a score. His form over the last few years will give him some space, as he's never had a slump.
Captain Ricky Ponting has been criticised for being grumpy on field.
I have to say, I can't blame him.
He has publicly and privately backed Hayden, Symonds and Lee to get the job done.
They each have immense talents, proven track records, and are the senior players in the team.
And they have failed Ponting this summer.
At least Ricky had the guts to grind out 200 runs this test. That's approximately 196 runs more than Hayden has made this summer (give or take).
The Victorian media has been on Ponting's back, mainly because he's captain ahead of Saint Shane Warne.
They should leave him alone and turn on the players who have let him down.
Hayden, Lee and Symonds will be gone.
Rogers, Hilfenhaus and Watson should be in.
Despite the criticism he has copped, Ponting has shown he is still Australia's best batsman.
It's time to give the players who have dominated at Shield level a chance to do it in a Test match.
And if they can't, the axe will be back out.

Argh, this has been an annoying Test. Why would we pick one in-form bowler, a crap spinner, a not-very-good Victorian, a non-bowling all-rounder, and Brett Lee??? Who the hell is supposed to take the wickets??? Johnson can't take them all.