How rattled are Australia?

Events in the New Year haven’t really worked in Australia’s favour. Detractors of the team may want to use this to point to an imminent decline in the team’s fortunes. And it seems plausible too. The Australian team ended 2007 with a signature win over India. Convincing, ruthless, professional and expected. But 2008 began with a heart-stopping win that raised many questions. Was Australia playing in the spirit of the game? Were they the bad boys?

The Australian media defended their team, but the public didn’t quite agree. As a TV poll showed, 82 per cent of Australian fans who voted in the poll said Ricky Ponting was not the best ambassador for Australian cricket. And this started a series of events that saw a change in the team’s attitude on the field. Was this quieter, non-confrontational almost non-Australian team the reason they lost in Perth? It’s easy to believe that because Australia didn’t do much lip service in Perth they lost. But that would be like saying their cricketing strength is in their mouth! Quite the contrary as they showed when they made India fight for a draw in the final Test.

But since then, there has been a steady attack at them through the media from India and now, Sri Lanka. And that the Australians are taking the bait is proof that they indeed are rattled. The most recent of these ‘exchanges’ came about when Virender Sehwag said that Australia was afraid of playing India. To which, Stuart Clark replied calling the claim “laughable”. Sure, the Australian media had another take on it calling Sehwag a clown, but that’s the media!

India, for their part, has done well to steer clear of any more dramas since Harbhajan Singh’s appeal was upheld and his ban overturned. Since the events of Sydney, the Indian team has shown a marked improvement on the field and while credit for this has gone to the bowlers, a large part of it must go to the Test skipper Anil Kumble. Although he no longer plays ODIs, his efforts just a month ago has helped in uniting the team like never before. And the results are showing in the ODIs too (the loss to Sri Lanka notwithstanding!).

Australia is also a team going through some major changes. The retirement of Adam Gilchrist has once again highlighted that the best players of the last decade may not be around much longer. Matthew Hayden is another candidate who could well step away from one form of the game to extend his career in the other. And one can’t help but feel that it will be ODIs that he would bid adieu to.

Over the last few years, Australia has been blessed with experienced talent from domestic cricket that has been able to handle the move up to Test cricket. Mike Hussey, Phil Jaques and even Stuart Clark are some examples. But as Chris Rogers’ failures in Perth showed, they can’t continue to depend on 30-plus players forever. They will need to start a rebuilding process sooner or later and get in at least some players in the age group of 20-25 who can serve the team longer. But Australia does things differently and they prefer the fitness and capability of a player over only age. In the long run, however, this could affect Australia adversely.

Cricket Australia (CA), the governing body for the sport in Australia has also its own battles to fight off the field. There is an expected exodus of past players to the Indian Premier League (IPL) for serious money. Some also argue that Gilchrist’s retirement just before the player bidding for the IPL began had something to do with this. Tell an Australian player this and they will definitely call it laughable! But there’s some merit to the theory there.

While CA dilly-dallies on its decision about allowing players to participate in the IPL, Lalit Modi, the Commissioner of the IPL has announced that players can sign up for the IPL without CA’s permission. This, as most of the cricketing world would like to believe, looks like another attempt by the richest cricketing board to play bully. But in the interest of retired players including Glenn McGrath, Damien Martyn, Justin Langer, Shane Warne and now Adam Gilchrist, CA would need to decide almost immediately. As Modi announced, the cut-off date would be treated as sacrosanct and the Australian players could miss out if their contracts are not signed and delivered by February 17.

So while Australian cricketers and their board are facing variety of pressures from different angles, they have to ensure that the focus on the field is not lost. The lack of form of their captain Ricky Ponting could be a result of all the distractions his team is facing. Or it could just be that the Indian bowlers have him figured out! Ponting averaged only 38 in the series, well below his career average of almost 59. At 33 years, he may still have another four years, including the 2011 World Cup before he calls it quits, but his team isn’t getting younger. Neither is he.

Australia has ruled the cricketing world since the early 1990s for almost 16 years. They have had two Test winning streaks of 16 matches each, have won the ODI World Cup the last three times and are without doubt the best that the world has ever seen. That they managed this amid an ever-increasing workload is further testimony to their emphasis on fitness and a new way of playing they have brought about. But like all reigns, this one too, must end.

When this reign will end depends either on how much the opposition improves or how fast Australia declines. At the moment, it seems like a combination of the two that could well bring it about faster than most anticipate.
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Over the last few years, Australia has been blessed with experienced talent from domestic cricket like Stuart Clark for example.