Buchanan must be nuts

John Buchanan is an ideas man. Built a career on it. Must have been good ideas, given his enormous success with Queensland and Australia.

His latest one is a doozy.

Now Buchanan wants to see good players not good enough for their own country�s elite to be farmed out to help lesser nations.

Please tell me this isn�t true.

The very notion of a league-style system might seem appealing at first. Brad Hodge and Simon Katich could play regular test cricket, as their talents may demand. But what happens then? Katich knocks up a double ton for Zimbabwe, in front of his adoring home fans in, um, Bulawayo. Does he then get called back for Australia?

C�mon.

What exactly would kids be shooting for?

Be great and play in the baggy green.

Be good and make the one day team.

Be OK and play for Bangladesh?

It is a shame that Stuart MacGill has only played 41 tests. Disappointing that the prolific Darren Lehmann has to wait over a decade for a decent crack in the elite, but in the cookie cutter business that cricket has become, one aspect has stayed sacrosanct:

Nationalism.

Sure, Kepler Wessels played for two nations and Aussie Martin McCague masqueraded as a test cricketer for England, however they were the exception, not the rule.

If you think Buchanan�s idea does have merit, just remember this:

Australia v Australia A in the 1990s.

How long did that seem a good idea for?

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