Mr Cricket - aka Mike Hussey - should henceforth be known as Mr Very Lucky to Get a Game. Or Mr Occasionally Hits the Ball in the Middle of The Bat but Usually Scratches Around At the Crease Like an Old Chook.

Such has been the extent of Hussey's decline in the past two seasons that the unimaginative moniker attached to him in 2005 by England all-rounder Andrew Flintoff has now become a bit of a sick joke.

Yet, in keeping with Cricket Australia's time-honoured, pensioner-friendly selection policy, the left-hander finds himself part of the Australian XII to take on the West Indies in the opening Test in Brisbane tomorrow. Which is a boon for Hussey, who'll probably score a poultice against that District 2nd XI attack - and a travesty for many up-and-coming batsmen, but especially his fellow mollydooker, Phil Hughes.

Personally, I'd have handed Hussey CA's version of the pink slip, thanked him for his valuable service and kindly asked him to clear out his locker.

His reflexes have all but deserted him, his confidence - which once oozed from every pore - has evaporated and his shot selection - once precise and unerring - is now a very pale imitation of what it was at his peak in 2006 and 2007, when his average had climbed into the 80s after 18 Test matches and some 30-year-old journalists were making very rash comparisons between him and the great batsmen of the game.

His last two years, though, have produced unalloyed misery, his Test career only being saved by a plucky century against the English in the final Test at The Oval last year. But that even-a-blind-pig-can-occasionally-find-an-acorn moment should not be allowed to mask the real truth: Hussey has had his time and should be replaced.

Australian cricket has always been progressive in promoting its brightest young talent to the Test arena - and Shane Warne, Craig McDermott and Hughes are among those to have benefitted from that bold policy. But, conversely, once some players have that Baggy Green cap wedged on tight, they become fixtures in the team and only the most determined use of a crowbar enables that cap to be prised off. Someone needs to find that crowbar now and go to work on Mr Cricket's headgear.

Hussey made his Test debut in this same fixture four years ago - against West Indies at the Gabba - when he scored one and 29. In the second Test he scored 137 and 31 not out, kickstarting a three-year run of extraordinary success. He is living off a reputation forged in those first 18 Tests when he racked up the runs while simply refusing to get out. But his next 19 Tests produced a more modest return and he averaged just 34 runs per innings.

His achievements as a Test player should not be belittled for they have been considerable. But he's 34 now, while Hughes turns 20 next week, and is the most exciting - if slightly flawed - young talent to emerge for a very long time, even is he is another New South Welshman.

You do the math. The equation is simple: pick Hughes now, give him his head against the pie-throwers from the Caribbean and Pakistan and sit back and enjoy as he launches himself into a 10-year career that could prove a one-man antidote to many of Test cricket's ills.