Is the Slug snug?

PL reports on selection dilemmas from

Snug was famed for its ooked rawns long before anyone had hear of Beau Webster

Between my finger and my thumb

The squat pen rests; snug as a gun.

Exceprt from Digging by Seamus Heaney

Passed through Snug, home of Beau Webster, on Tuesday and was taken by how closely the butcher shop graphic (above) resembled a batter taking evasive action having shouldered arms to one that’s bouncing over the stumps but close to midriff.

In truth, as you can see, a stray dog has stolen the enraged man’s sausages. The obvious reading is the most appropriate. If I’m reading too much into this, my defence is that everyone else is. Silly season is, now that the footy is finalled, upon us.

Everywhere I look, people seem to be questioning the man they call Slug’s place in the Australian side. I’m clearly missing something. The all-rounder has averaged 35 since his debut against India in Sydney last season. He’s posted four half-centuries batting at the SCG (India), Lord’s (South Africa), Bridgetown and Grenada (West Indies). He earned his place in the XI and appears to have confirmed the reasons it was granted to him.

He’s been handy with the ball, too. Yes, he’s missed the first round of the Shield, and may miss the second, but the talk of excising the Slug from the Ashes XI had begun well before that.

I recently went back and listened to Simon Katich’s famous SCG press conference (When the Kat was on the Mat) after he lost his contract and noted one observation he’d made about the Ashes loss the previous summer, “looking over their shoulders” from the moment a squad of 17 had been announced.

I’m not suggesting the Australian panel will do the same, or is at fault for the situation we now find ourselves in; indeed, they may already have their XI set in stone and may well be just waiting for the chosen ones to tick it off with Sheffield Shield performances.