The future of the Australian cricket team

• I don't want to be a doom-sayer for the Australian cricket team, but
  the signs of decay are there......

• there is arrogance in decision making, eg the decision to bat on in the test against the South Africans, putting personal records above the chance of a team result (sending England in during the first Ashes test indicated the same)
• erratic captainancy, for example when Ricky Ponting went out of his way to criticise his young bowlers after losing the last one day match against NZ. Aren't these bowlers the future of the Australian team, so why destroy their morale?
• there is pig-headedness in selections. Although several new batsmen have been tried (successfully), an underperforming player such as Andrew Symonds is perservered with (is there a "mate's" network as with Jason Gillespie during the Ashes series?).
• It also seems that the third-best bowler in the country, Stuart MacGill will be ignored for the Boxing Day test, as he was for the whole Ashes series.
• When you look at the statistics for the 2 ageing stars of the Australian bowling attack, it seems that Warney is doing very well, thank you, but Glenn McGrath is starting to feel his years.
• Compare the bowling figures for the tests this season, against the ICC XI joke team, the pathetic West Indies (rated just above Zimbabwe) and fifth-ranked South Africa:
• McGrath: average 25.00, economy 2.25, strike rate 67 (compared to his career figures of: average 21.41, economy 2.50, strike rate 51)
• Warne: average 21.86, economy 2.56, strike rate 51 (compared to his career figures of: average 25.01, economy 2.61, strike rate 57)

McGrath's figures are still good, but the deterioration against mediocre opposition is there to see. How will he be next season, when he celebrates his 37th birthday?