Robert Craddock

And he looked good.

He looked like a kid on top of his game.

And Cooper Connolly particularly, outside off stump, he's very firm and strong, as a lot of West Australian players are.

Marnus Labuschagne, 29, he's battling.

He's really battling in the white ball game.

And, you know, I wonder whether Cooper Connolly's development will see the end of Matt Short's white ball career.

It's a big call by the players because they've been sitting and watching quietly all this.

You know, it might well do that.

And they very rarely take a stance until they have to.

And they wait and they wait and they watch.

But for them to come out and tell all their accredited agents and all the players, sorry, we just don't support this.

It's a shocking blow for it.

Because if there's one thing I know about Australian cricket, Gerard, nothing happens without the player's approval.

They're tremendously powerful for the last 25 years.

They don't always get what they want, but they're masters at blocking things that they don't want.

They're a bit like John Coates in the Olympics.

He doesn't always get what he wants, but if you take him on in something, you're batting about zero out of 100.

So that's why I think this project is on starvation rations at the moment.

And it's a shame because

if they'd have gone through the right protocols and just showed a bit of patience, they might have got this up.