Are you for real? Pakistan and Windies have been found out for skimping in Aussie conditions

The cricket debate of season 2023/24 in the public sphere has been the standard of our opponents filling all the Tests of this summer and I can understand it.

I question whether Australian cricket is using our year and our summer as well as we can to possibly provide a little more satisfaction to the fans.

Firstly, if teams want the summer focus in Australia, they must spend at least three more weeks prior to the first Test in Australia.

Pakistan – and they’re a Pakistan team without the charisma and profile of the former superstars Imran Khan, Zaheer Abbas, Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis – skimped on preparation in Australia.

They fumbled and bumbled their way to losing the series before they began to play reasonably in Sydney when it was way too late.

Then the West Indies bring out an incredibly inexperienced team. That might be all they’ve got, a couple of players have decided to go and play T20 leagues, but these guys are incredibly inexperienced and they arrived two weeks prior to their first Test. Are you for real?

We don’t want you in the middle of our summer if that’s the case. We want teams that are going to give themselves the best chance at being competitive.

Now where did this 20-year trend come from? It’s lazy and it’s never worked. My first Test, by the way, in Australia, was against the West Indies in 1988 and it saw us lose as badly as the current West Indies team lost last week in Adelaide.

We lost well and truly inside three days at the Gabba. The discrepancy between our two nations has been this big before that means, but what happens next is what counts.

Australia had resources to invest in youth pathway competitions, the academies involved, coaching in the Sheffield Shield ranks and the Sheffield Shield itself being a very valuable competition.

The players, our young players, just wanted hard work, training hard and playing schedules were packed and very valuable. This willingness by players is crucial if the West Indies are going to stay in the competition.

They must want hard work, otherwise they will wilt. The legendary West Indies teams of the 1980s actually helped Australia’s recovery by coming here for 10 years in a row.

Is there more we can do for the West Indies right now? The question to the West Indies is, ‘Would you like assistance’?

They might say, ‘no, we’re okay’. If so, what are the options? Teams could come to Australia in the winter months for games and learning, these costs need to be subsidized, probably by the ICC, shared a little bit by Australia. And the second option could be a well-constructed Australian XI touring team sent to their shores when it suits our seasons. Maybe a David Warner could lead that, for example, for a month in the West Indies playing games against their first-class teams.

Again, the costs need to be subsidized and shared. Blooding our youngsters, giving coaches more experience and getting senior players to lead could be good for us while we’re doing some good work for the West Indies for example.

Now maybe an international player draft or player pool could provide the West Indies with two players… players who can’t get a game for their own nation but are willing to still play Tests and help or develop players elsewhere could be a really valuable tool to get on the field with these teams.

A lot can be tried. But I don’t see Cricket Australia even starting these sorts of conversations because they are quite difficult.

One thing that must happen though is Australia can only support teams who want to prepare properly and be ready for the quality for Australia’s cricket team from the first Test on.

A very poor performance by Pakistan and West Indies this year with their preparation.