The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : Wounded Australia is dangerous

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Feb 20, 2007
ePaper

Sport

Sport - Cricket

Wounded Australia is dangerous

The game has turned interesting because Australia has stepped down a level, writes Rohit Brijnath

A terrific panic is racing through Australian cricket and it is beautiful to behold. Usually these fellows, unfamiliar with mercy, exit contests having left a size-12 imprint on the timid psyche of their opponents. Now phrases such as `dark days' appear in Australian sports pages, the batting line-up is being autopsied every second hour, and sighs of resignation litter offices. Welcome to our world, fellas.

In recent years, Australia's one-day team has played a sport its opponents have been unfamiliar with. Four defeats in a row is a routine statistic in many nations. In Australia it is an occurrence as frequent as Federer looking plaintively at the coach's box. Understandably they are confused.

Frailties revealed

Still, the tiny tears in their one-day dominance have been there, but we have been wary of believing them. A series loss to South Africa, emphasised by a chase down of 434 runs. Two defeats to the West Indies. The Champions Trophy was won, the CB Series began strongly, but within victory, inside triumph, minor hiccups were seen, slight frailties revealed. Like Michelangelo missing a few spots on the Sistine Chapel ceiling.

The great McGrath's bowling occasionally looked as weary as his lined face. The bowling attack was occasionally so friendly it had a fellow with an Alice band in it. Catches slipped from anxious fingers. The team balance was awry.

Even Mr. Cricket, who reputedly can turn water into beer, had a run of scores of 29, 6, 8, 17, 0. Ponting at times looked capable of homicide. Even when they won, it was not emphatically, not murderously. Such grand teams are judged by the most exalted standards.

Still, everyone is tiptoeing around Australia, for why annoy a great team with a long memory. We want them to fall even as we admire them. After all, across the globe we say of our meek teams, why can't you be like them? Hiring Australian coaches is fashionable, though sweating like Australians is apparently not.

Theories abound

On the island, everyone has a theory. Some say it is Andrew Symonds's injury, for much like Irfan Pathan's loss of form did to India, his absence has stolen balance from the Australians. Some see time having caught up with a few players, others contend replacements do not have the size of talented feet for the shoes they must fill. Certainly the days of joshing that Australia's second XI could take on the world are over.

Overuse has reasonably found itself also to blame, though one critic has dexterously stretched his argument to include India as a culpable party.

Apparently sub-continental greed is to blame for the constant cricket, though why exactly Australia cannot hold its ground and say "enough" is not adequately explained. Apparently they have no choice but to be greedy, too, and play more.

John Buchanan, that excellent provocateur, who must dream of presiding over a dinner table of Phil Jackson, Sun Tzu, Machiavelli and De Bono, is copping some flak, too, partly because he blithely mentioned recently that Australia could do with some competition before the World Cup.

He was not all wrong, only his timing was. Australia's opponents have rarely stepped up, they have been booed, sneered at, goaded but still not responded adequately. If anaemic England finally displayed some iron it was only because the law of averages suggested it eventually had to. Most of the world has limped along these past few years, only Australia has kept a consistent grip on grit and professionalism.

It is ironic that cricket has turned interesting not because teams are rising to Australia's level, but because Australia has, perhaps temporarily, stepped down to everyone else's.

No doubt recent events have done fans a service, for it has erased predictability from the World Cup.

But perhaps England, and the Kiwis, have also awoken the Australians at an inopportune time. It was better they travelled to the cup confident, cocksure, unaware they were leaking.

Now they are wounded, angry, embarrassed, upset, driven, out to prove a point. Hide the children and batten up the hatches. Occasionally teams need a crisis to snarl again.

Of course, this Australian team, which went into the last World Cup with a 15-2 record, is not as formidable as it was. It does not matter. If South Africa is the favourite now, the defending champions have little to fear, for the Proteas are energetic yet brittle, efficient yet nervy, especially when the moment arises.

Will Australia win this World Cup? Of course! It's what they do.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Sport