Tim Nielsen hasn't quite got the hang of when to resign and when not to resign, has he?
You'd have thought that being hammered at home by England and losing three Tests by an innings would be an ideal opportunity to hand in your notice. Not Tim.
Or even being knocked out of the World Cup at the quarter-final stage having been winners in the three previous tournaments. No, not Tim.
Failing that, you'd have thought that the publication of the Argus report and the fact that he was going to have to reapply for his job would be the final straw for Tim nice but ever so dim. Nope, don't be silly.
So, you'd have thought that following up the one day series win in Sri Lanka by beating the home side in the Test series would have left Nielsen feeling vindicated for his refusal to fall on his sword.
No, not Tim. He decided to resign.
Like every Englishman (and Sourav Ganguly?) we really hop that Greg Chappell gets the job.
Where next?
Read all our County Cricket coverage
Check out all our Reverse Sweep cricket heroes and zeroes
If you like this, follow us on Twitter @thereversesweep
Nielsen is another victim of the Argus report. Plus, going out with a win - or after we've hit our nadir (maybe) - has a certain appeal.
He had no plans to resign until it was suggested by the report that he is required to apply for the position again in an open field. He felt his body of work should have been sufficient to avoid this "humiliation" (but we as Aussie cricket fans would hardly agree).
Against a top quality field he would stand little chance. In itself this is ironic because he took Australia from top quality IN the field to a below-average fielding team.
Posted by: Matt Wood | Tuesday, September 20, 2011 at 16:35
Cheers Matt - Winning In Sri Lanka, whilst easier than in the past with Vaas and Murail in the home XI, is a pretty impressive way to bow out. It used to be English cricket that was hostage to irrelevant reports and navel gazing, so it provokes much hilarity in this Pom that this is now the fate of Australia's cricket side. You are right about the fielding too, it was close to shocking during the Ashes series though still better than India's this English summer!
Posted by: The Reverse Sweep | Tuesday, September 20, 2011 at 16:44
I have this awful feeling, that he's going to get the top job. The Director's overall job, can't remember what they called it, but they created it in the restructuring, it's kind of a coaching overlord job. It will keep him away from directly coaching the Aus team so that's a good thing.
He was out of his depth.
Posted by: Lolly | Tuesday, September 20, 2011 at 21:45