By rights, Tasmania should enter this season with confidence. Having
produced a barnstorming finish in 2000-01, the side ended third in the Pura
Cup and at last seemed to have re-discovered the edge in confidence that
has been missing at times from its game over recent years.
It also has a fresh look with Ricky Ponting as its new captain, and dashing
left handed batsman Michael DiVenuto is happily still in the fold after an
attempted off-season recruiting raid by South Australia.
But some question marks still hang over the depth of its batting, and its
ability to regularly bowl sides out twice - particularly at its home ground.
In truth too, its finishing position in the Pura Cup masked some serious
deficiencies in its game through the middle stages of the season.
Furthermore, it has not played in any kind of limited-overs final for 15
long years.
All in all, its supporters will be craving a better summer.
Nevertheless, the Tasmanians have been able to effect some important
changes to their personnel and philosophy over the last year or two.
And by contrast to their first-class position, the Tigers' fifth-placed
finish in the Mercantile Mutual Cup did not adequately reflect the fact
that the side produced its most impressive one-day season for a number of
years.
Importantly, the state's hierarchy has blooded a number of excellent young
players recently. In all-rounders Shane Watson and Scott Kremerskothen and
wicketkeeper Sean Clingeleffer, it has three outstanding cricketers and
each is likely to exert a big mark in Australian cricket in the years ahead.
Pace bowler Brett Geeves begins this season on the sidelines due to a
bedevilling osteitis pubis injury but is another who conveys the sense that
the island staters have assembled one of the best line-ups of young talent
in the country.
Although some of its interstate recruits haven't lived up to their billing
of late, the attraction to the state of Western Australian Michael Dighton
and Queenslander Matthew Pascoe also looks likely to pay dividends.
Dighton will add steel to a top order that has struggled - the sterling
efforts of Jamie Cox aside - for consistency. Pascoe, meanwhile, will
extend the depth of a bowling attack which has performed admirably over
recent years. Albeit that the likes of Damien Wright (arguably one of the
top one-day bowlers in the country), left armer Andrew Downton and
all-rounder Daniel Marsh still seem to remain grossly underrated outside
the state.
From the first-class side which took the field for Tasmania at the
equivalent time two years ago, it is likely that there will be at least
five changes. In itself, that says much about the unyielding extent of the
work that has been devoted to the task of rejuvenating the squad and making
it a side which will be competitive both this season and long into the
future.
With even the remotest touch of luck, this could be a year in which the
Tasmanians silence the usual dreary gaggle of mainland critics aligned
against them. Such figures are generally quick not only to discount the
Tigers' chances of success but also to diminish the achievements of their
batsmen on a supposedly always-friendly pitch at home. They need to be
shown that both sets of judgements are wide of the mark.
The key player: Jamie Cox. Impossible to go past the reigning Pura Cup
Player of the Season when identifying Tasmania's most valuable player.
Fresh from another great season with English county Somerset - and only
just out of the headlines after deciding to let Ricky Ponting have first
crack at the Tasmanian captaincy this summer - he remains vital to the
Tigers' cause. Whether he will be given the reward of being selected for
Australia is still, by contrast, uncertain.
The up-and-comer: Xavier Doherty. Tasmania has traditionally been
reluctant to thrust spinners into its team too quickly. At the age of 19,
this excellent young left arm orthodox bowler would therefore be
spectacularly defying convention if he were to make much of an impact at
domestic level quite yet. He also has the small matter of an Australian
Cricket Academy scholarship and an Under-19 World Cup upon which to
concentrate first. But, if he's seen there at all, it's hard to imagine
the impression won't be favourable. In plucking Shane Watson from the
Academy, Tasmania produced the defining recruiting coup of 2000-01; an
accurate bowler with intelligent variety, Doherty might well be the next to
make a rapid progression into the Tigers' senior ranks.
The draw: For a number of reasons, its performance during the middle phase
of the season will probably determine Tasmania's fate. The Tigers need to
bear in mind that it was in this period that they lost their way last time
around and, in that they are required to travel to just one away venue in
the months of November, December and January, they have been handed a
genuine chance to atone. A good start would also serve them well: positive
results from any of the four games they play in Sydney and Perth in the
season's opening month likely to help build confidence quickly.
Predicted Pura Cup finishing position: 4th
Predicted ING Cup finishing position: 3rd
