SO, can we talk about Chris Lynn’s consistency?

This summer he’s had no Shield cricket. No one-day cricket. Just the three Big Bash games.

And his last one-day game came 350 days ago.

He’s played nine domestic one-day games in three years for a return of 29 per innings and a top score of 63.

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And his current return to cricket comes with the restrictions of being a gross liability in the field through not being allowed to dive for the ball or throw with his dominant hand without fear of having his arm detach completely from his shoulder socket.

I’m not even making this up.

When asked a week ago about a return to the national set-up, Lynn’s response was far from open-ended.

“I still can’t throw with my dominant hand and still believe to play for Australia you’ve got to be 100 per cent fit,” he said.

“I’d love to be out there, but I’ve still got a way to go”.

Strange response, right? Normally players are salivating at the chance to push their own cause publicly.

Because even though the body might not necessarily be ready for an injection of workload, the bank account is always ready for an injection of funds.

Chris Lynn has not played one day cricket since his last appearance for Australia 350 days ago. Source: News Corp Australia

Damn straight — talk yourself into making $7,000 per one-day game!

But maybe this response runs a little deeper than just the rehabbing of a problematic shoulder.

Earlier this year, Lynn snubbed a domestic contract with Queensland to rehab that shoulder.

Why wouldn’t you want the security of guaranteed money while you take time out of your profession to fix your body?

The way of the modern player: T20 freelancer!

When you can hit the ball as clean as Chris Lynn, why wouldn’t you flick the bird at the lure of national representation, choosing instead to trade bombs for cash — which is more relevant today than you might even know.

Making the decision more fundamentally sound than a perceived cash grab, Lynn’s shoulder is in such bad shape that it threatens the longevity of his career.

The man’s gotta eat. And cashing in on your strengths is a sound business model.

Does $7,000 per day restrict Lynn’s long-term earnings as a T20 freelancer?

Speculation. But sometimes it’s fun ... and relevant.

It was a brave decision to not partake in guaranteed money, and at the time, it felt like the end of Chris Lynn the international performer; at least until his shoulder was back to full health, he wasn’t a liability in the field and he was recommitted to the state pathway.

STATE PATHWAY!!??? (insert an evil laugh from the NSP)

It is here that we take a knee for Glenn Maxwell and Jon Holland, to give thanks that we are not living the professional hell they must now be experiencing.

“Go back to shield cricket and score more runs” the NSP said to Maxwell after dropping him from the Test team following a brief stint in which all of his innings came on the Australian graveyard of the subcontinent and included a breakthrough Test century that, on the surface, appeared to be the making of him at that level.

Getting dropped is always tough to swallow; but making it even harder to pass through the gullet is the square-shaped nature of the ridiculously ICC-sanctioned flat decks that have been offered up at the WACA and the MCG!

It doesn’t get any flatter without someone having to pay a fine.

Give Glenn credit, here. We’ve seen no public whining, even though I’m sure he desperately wanted it.

Chris Lynn guided Brisbane Heat home over the Melbourne Stars with 63 not out. Source: Getty Images

And no requests to jump states like last time.

It was clear from this, as a rank outside observer, that Maxwell had matured. His focus seemed solely on doing as he was told, which hasn’t always been easy for him, or me, or your puppy retriever.

And how did this new approach to his cricketing life work for him?

Career-best form and unseen consistency.

Try 278 against NSW, a 96 against Western Australia and a pair of 60s against Tasmania.

Since being dropped for Geoff’s boy Shaun, Maxwell has been a shining example of consistency: batting long periods, getting his team through key moments, winning key moments; proving that he can be a leader with bat in hand.

From this, it’s not possible you could question his showing of improvement in the areas that have too often plagued his career: consistency.

His batting fundamentals, the basics forever questioned, must surely have him perfectly poised to re-find the golden touch of the man who was named the 2016 one-day player of the year — the man who averaged 62, at a strike rate of 180, in the last World Cup.

Confusingly, Steve Smith took time in his press conference today to suggest Glenn still hadn’t mastered the art of consistency.

Glenn Maxwell’s attitude to training was questioned by Australian captain Steve Smith after he was dropped from the ODI squad. Source: Getty Images

“Train a little bit smarter” were the pointed words Smith used to justify the selectors swinging the axe.

“If he keeps his head switched on and trains really well, and focuses on basic things, probably more than the expansive things, then I think that will help his consistency.

“And if he is having those consistent performances, then he is someone you definitely want to have in your team”.

Whoah! You can take that with you on the way out, Maxy.

Without pushing blame on anyone other than Glenn for his training standards — because grinding in the nets isn’t for everyone, and nor should it be, for we are all different animals — what in the name of Mayor West are his coaches doing?

Where is Darren Lehmann? Graeme Hick?

Why are Andrew McDonald and Dave Hussey, who oversee the Victorian program, letting him do his own thing? And if he isn’t off coaching himself, then why is he paying the ultimate price for the coaching plan he has been given?

Where is the consultation from CA to the states to ensure that Glenn is being guided down a harmonious pathway of development?

I’ll tell you where: it lay in the gutter with the same contradictory communication standards that saw Steve Smith go rogue and drop Ed Cowan for being too old, which made the NSP and CA look completely incompetent through it’s contradictory selections of Shaun Marsh and Tim Paine.

It lay next to Cameron White and George Bailey who experienced the same fate.

It lay next to the decision to fly a suspended-by-his-state Steve O’Keefe — for an incident many believe to have been sackable — to Bangladesh, ahead of Jon Holland.

That’s Holland who is the best-performed spinner in domestic cricket over the past two seasons, by the way.

The further contradiction of Marsh and Paine — proven domestic warriors that have the NSP currently beating their own drum — against the selection of Ashton Agar over Holland.

Glenn Maxwell is known for his expansive strokeplay in Australian colours. Source: AFP

But perhaps most confusing about this is the fact that the strength of your white-ball numbers can get you picked for Test match cricket — see Paine, Stoinis — yet finding a level of unseen consistency in the red-ball format — the only one available to you through the demise of domestic cricket to ensure the cluster of the BBL rolls on — isn’t enough to answer the question marks over your consistency as a cricketer.

The consultation between CA, the NSP and state associations appears to be beyond the gutter of disarray.

It is completely non existent.

And it seems the communication with players on the radar — as proven by Chris Lynn’s quote about his shoulder only a week ago and Jon Holland’s phone not displaying ‘NSP Calling” for an extended period — rolls into the same storm water drain.

Does the outcome — Australia is up 3-0 in the Ashes, after all — justify the means?

No.

Not when it comes to the careers of professional athletes who need as much information as possible to perform and train at their optimum.