Trevor Hohns has retired as the chair of Cricket Australia’s selection panel after a hugely successful career spanning a cumulative twenty-one years. Hohns had two stints as chairman, from 1995 to 2005 and again from 2014. He will be replaced by the 38-year-old George Bailey, who played ninety ODIs and five tests for Australia.
Cricket Australia will of course be hugely disappointed to see the back of Hohns, who has been a commanding influence in what has been a golden age for cricket down under. As a man thirty years his junior comes in and the board seeks a third panel member to assist Bailey and Justin Langer, there will undoubtedly be a teething period after decades of relative stability and calm.
With the T20 World Cup looming and the Ashes to follow, Bailey will be welcomed with a baptism of fire as cricket’s biggest tests come unrelentingly into view. After the ECB gave England coach Chris Silverwood the principal selection responsibilities, it will be fascinating to see how these two new systems, and subsequently the very nature of international cricket, develop.
