Safety in experienced numbers

Michael Kasprowicz deleted the Cricket Australia email with all the logistical details of the Test tour to South Africa. At 34 he didn't consider retiring or giving up hope, but when the sleep-eat-train-play matrix arrived in his inbox a month ago it quickly became trash. It was a reasonable move as his international career already seemed in the bin after he was thrown out at the end of the Ashes series.

Getting Queensland to the Pura Cup final and even playing in his club University's grade decider against Sunshine Coast seemed greater priorities. The mindset changed on Tuesday with his selection in the 14-man Test squad as Trevor Hohns's selection panel settled on a safe combination from a previous era.

Dressed in Helly Hansen outdoor gear, Kasprowicz carried rugged facial hair to discuss another trek back from the wilderness. If he plays his 36th Test in South Africa it will be his tenth return to the team - one more than Graeme Hick, the poster boy of dumpings - and is a wonderful example of surviving and recovering from rejections that no romantic partner would accept. Like outswing, age and experience have become trendy again.

Across in South Africa another 34-year-old was toasting his regained status in the country's elite. Five months ago Damien Martyn believed his Test career was over - he was not the only one - when he experienced his second severe culling after being held responsible for the five-run SCG loss to South Africa in 1993-94. While the calls that umpiring errors in England ended his career can stop, Hohns has created further serious issues by sweeping in the old broom.

Martyn's summer has been a poor one and it's not unfair to measure it by his 143 Pura Cup runs in three matches and four half-centuries in 17 ODIs. Crucially, in many of his limited-overs appearances he has been either tentative or outlandish, like he's unsure of his place or his method.

He has now been re-marked as Australia's No.4, a solid and dependable player who can ensure a smooth transition from the dominators of Hayden, Langer and Ponting to the Test adolescents of Michael Hussey and Andrew Symonds. Hohns said Martyn's experience was crucial in winning the spot from Brad Hodge, who has taken on his replacement's poor selection luck after averaging 58.45 in his five Tests.

South Africa's one-day resurgence and Australia's tender recent touring record, especially without Glenn McGrath, has pushed the selectors in a rare bout of back-pedalling. Instead of the usual certainty they have chosen hopefully. After last winter there is doubt over whether this outfit can hold their world-beating shape ahead of the Ashes. If the old men don't work the selection panel will have to step into the past to retry second and third choices as a traditionally famous well of back-up talent struggles like Brisbane's drought-stricken dams to fill up.

Since The Oval Australia have played seven Tests and 20 ODIs, but in a season of three Test debutants and seven one-day welcomes only Hussey and Stuart Clark have succeeded in making the South Africa squad. Mick Lewis, Brett Dorey, Mitchell Johnson, Cameron White and Phil Jaques appeared in their first games without catapulting and Nathan Bracken, James Hopes and Shane Watson have not been able to maintain international standards. The flow-on rate is not attractive and means a 30-year-old novice like Clark can be described as someone with potential.

Michael Clarke and Shaun Tait drag the average age down as the nephews of the squad, but the pair was picked to fill the role of spare bowler and batsman. They require more support from their mid-20s state colleagues to mask the dangerous generation gap that has formed in the national team. Travis Birt and George Bailey, who are second and third on the Pura Cup run-scoring list behind Darren Lehmann, must continue the form of their breakthrough seasons, Jaques has to avoid being surprised by rising balls that start on leg and angle across him and Adam Griffith and Dorey need to knock the bowling greybeards of Kasprowicz, Bichel and Gillespie from the head of the wicket tables.

Despite the Ashes loss, 2005 has apparently proved to be a year of fond memories and has sparked returning player fashions. The more frightening thought is Australia lining up at the Gabba with an eerily similar team to the one outplayed by England throughout last winter. Kasprowicz deserves praise for his never-give-up success and Martyn can prove he isn't washed up as a Test batsman, but the country's younger players must do better so the team moves ahead instead of looking conservatively backwards.