I dont rate Carberry either - he wasn't up to it in Australia but neither were many of the others!
Has he improved after spending a full season at domestic level following his introduction to Test cricket (yes, I know he previously played one Test against Bangladesh a few years before but
back then that didn't count) as is often the case for batsmen?
That's the position that Phil Hughes was in when he died last year, he was coming off the back of spending a couple of years at domestic level to hone his technique and come back into Test cricket (the Border-Gavaskar Trophy side was to be announced with his name in it the following day) as a more mature player.
The other Aussie being mentioned in dispatches re England manager is that perennial nearly-man, Tom Moody, for whom I personally have a lot of respect. If he were to be offered a one-day management role I'd be cock-a=hoop.
Tom Moody is a great "Mr Fixit" coach but not a long-term option, I can't see Strauss hiring him as it would be a blatant admission that things are in a really bad place.
He's not just an ODI specialist, when he was brought in by Sri Lanka he did a fair job of turning them into a credible Test team.
Having him as a consultant in the run up to the home World Cup in 2019 (like Australia did with Mike Young for this year) would be a good move. Poor match awareness was a huge part of England's problems in this year's group stage knockout fiasco, and anyone who saw Moody play or who has heard him as a commentator would know he reads the progress of a match about as well as anyone in the world at the moment.
They, the ECB, should have told KP that he wouldn't be considered for selection, end of story.
No. They should have simply stated that the selectors will pick the eleven players they consider the best side available, and that their decision will be final.
At the least that would have kept him in the country, earning buckets of money for both his county side and the opposition teams when playing away matches.
They could have dressed it up as some form of disciplinary issue as he was still centrally contracted. I am sure the ECB contracts will have various bringing into disrepute clauses within them. His book was quite incendiary after all!
From memory, he had to wait until his ECB contract finished (without renewal) before he released his hefty doorstop (Damian Fleming's book is a much better read, you'll at least get a laugh and the guarantee that the 'author' has actually read it himself) and so disrepute rules would not be enforceable.
If he was contracted at this time, he would not have released the book as yet. But if the ECB shenanigans played out the same way with him being contracted he would have a very significant employment law case against them, which would certainly result in a settlement potentially in the range of hundreds of thousands of pounds.
It's been a messy business all along. Both parties must should some of the responsibility for what has happened. KP should not have been told that the door was still open if that wasn't the case, but he has undoubtedly had more than a hand in his own downfall.
Indeed, for all the 'problems' caused by KP, the ECB has been desperate to trump him in that department.
But when they got knocked out of the World Cup at the same stage as the United Arab Emirates with their best ODI batsman in the commentary box, and when they couldn't win a Test series against the West Indies second stringers, it's easy to see why chasing small victories suddenly became a reasonable strategy.
All we now need is for Jason Gillespie to get the Head Coach's job and want KP in the England squad and that'll wind up Strauss!
He'd be better off declining the job now that he's seen how Andrew Strauss likes to run things. Taking the Adelaide Strikers job could not have come at a better time.
Or he could accept it, on the condition of Strauss being literally marched out of the building and tasered by security, only once Australia have won the first three Tests by a combined margin of 600 runs, one innings and eight wickets.
hock:.....A late rally availed them naught as they were all out for 78 and Lancashire won by 244 runs.