BRISBANE March 21 AAP – Queensland coach Darren Lehmann can’t fathom why the Bulls’ Sheffield Shield final hero Chris Hartley can’t get a look-in for Australia.
The wicketkeeper was the obvious man of the match in the dramatic victory over Tasmania this week, making 111 and an unbeaten 19 in two vital rearguard partnerships with Steve Magoffin.
Lehmann ended the final $2000 out of pocket after being fined for showing dissent to umpires for their controversial call to abandon play early on Sunday.
Not that it has made the ex-Test batsman gun-shy.
“Hartley should be the reserve Test keeper no doubt about that,” Lehmann told AAP.
“We are talking about a bloke who has broken records, and keeps better than anyone else in the country.
“Hartley has been exceptional and his batting is improving all the time.
“Look at his record, it is unbelievable. I can’t believe he has not been given the opportunity to be the back-up Test keeper.
“I am disappointed that he has not been rewarded for an outstanding year.”
Hartley didn’t leave his heroics until the final.
The crafty left-hander broke the 500-run, 50-dismissal barrier for the third time this season – the only other Australian to have done so more often is Rod Marsh.
Yet Hartley didn’t expect to be called up by national selectors any time soon.
Indeed the week of the Shield final Hartley was given a not so subtle reminder of where he lay in the pecking order after Test keeper Brad Haddin was forced to return from the Windies tour for personal reasons.
NSW gloveman Peter Nevill – who hit 570 Shield runs this season, just 26 more than Hartley – received the call to fly out to the Caribbean as his replacement.
It ensured Hartley was rated at best the fifth best Australian keeper behind Haddin, Matthew Wade, the recovering Tim Paine and Nevill.
That is despite Hartley equalling Wade Seccombe’s record for most dismissals by a Queensland keeper in a Shield season in 2011-12, with 58 scalps.
Hartley now has 370 first-class dismissals, second on the Bulls’ alltime list behind Seccombe (519).
