Brisbane: Australians pride themselves on a 'no bullshit' filter. They readily concede that without Steven Smith, the Ashes would have been relinquished. I have been inundated with comments from outraged cricket fans who realise that the final result masks a deeper, more uncomfortable truth when it comes to inconsistent selection criteria.

It used to be the Asian nations that were accused of biased selections based on family ties and favours owed but recent history suggests that India at least have made it a point to select teams based on performance. What's that you say? Performance? Selected on performance? How quaint! It'll never catch on in Australia.