Sydney, Dec 23 (IANS) With none of the Australian spinners getting a vote of confidence from the national and state-contracted players to be automatically selected, it is a big blow for the motley crowd of tweakers across the country.
In an annual poll conducted by the Australian Cricketers’ Association (ACA), it was revealed that Australia is possibly the only Test-playing nation where a spinner would not be considered by teammates to be an automatic selection.

The Australian media reported that all national and state-contracted players took part in the survey and 67 per cent believe a spinner should only be chosen if conditions suit - up from 52 per cent last year.

When asked if the national and the state teams should play a spinner regardless of conditions or venue, 79 per cent of Cricket Australia (CA)-contracted holders said no, while 65 per cent of state players shared the same feelings.

After the era of Shane Warne and Stuart MacGill, Australian selectors tried out Beau Casson, Cameron White, Bryce McGain, Jason Krejza and Nathan Hauritz and all have been used as specialist spinners since, with selectors showing most faith in the latter.

The Australian players have also said that they want a full-time selector on the national panel. The current National Selection Panel (NSP) headed by Andrew Hilditch - who is a partner of a law firm - also has David Boon, Jamie Cox and Merv Hughes, and all hold other positions.

Cox acts as high-performance manager of South Australian cricket, Boon has a role with marketing for Tasmanian cricket, and Hughes runs travel tours.

But 77 per cent of players - including 80 per cent of national players - say a full-time selector is necessary to make the big calls on their careers.