Is Australia the next West Indies ?

The true mark of an emperor is a touch of arrogance at the top of the throne. Once the emperor is dethroned to a king, that arrogance is read as confidence. And once the king turns into a pauper, that confidence is read as a joke. This downfall is very painful for any emperor turned pauper to take. One such team which went through this harsh reality was the West Indian team. My father could have never dreamt of a team which had master batsmen like Sir Viv Richards, Sir Garfield Sobers, Clive Lloyd & a terrorizing bowling attack featuring Joel Garner, Malcolm Marshall & Michael Holding, see such a plight now. All that he can do now is, unceremoniously shed tears of blood, thinking about the glorified past. The current West Indian team is not even close to the shadow of what was once the fiercest & feared opposition that the history of cricket could ever see. I just hope that I don’t shed tears of blood like my dad, looking at team Australia, when my son grows up.

Though it might be a bit harsh to rule the current Australian team a similar verdict as West Indies, but I just can’t help to think that they’re slowly spiraling down that route. “Australia may never regain Test cricket supremacy”, “'Aussie cricket crisis' declared after New Zealand defeat”, with such headlines doing the rounds; it’s hard not to feel for a team which dominated cricket for over 2 decades. Every team goes through this slump, but in the case of Australian cricket I’d like to think that this more than just a slump – A cause of concern.

But, what could possibly be the reason for this current “Lowest of the low” state of Australian cricket? I guess it all started with almost the simultaneous exit of legends such as Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath, Adam Gilchrist & Mathew Hayden. I think if we put just these four in a team, any opposition would flounder against them. But what is not strange is Cricket Australia’s inability to find apt replacements for them. These players are once in a lifetime players who can never be replaced. Inspite of having the best domestic framework, identifying such talents is another special task. This special task is not only about finding apt replacements, but also to unleash them at the right time.

Australia’s eternal search for that one special spinner has been a long one. Even though pacers such as Mitchell Johnson, Stuart Clarke, Shaun Tait, Brett Lee & more recently Pat Cummins are being considered as able replacements for Glen McGrath, none of the above can sustain a long career such as the Pigeon. The batting line up misses the grit and fire power to replace Mathew Hayden & Adam Gilchrist at the top of the order. The closest one can get is David Warner, but his consistency is yet to be tested in all formats of the game. 

Apart from the replacements, what matters the most that have carried Australia on a very strong platform, is the affirmation a captain has on his team & the way the team is projected to the opposition irrespective of any fall outs within the team. Captain Clarke has not been able to replicate the same kind of charisma that Steve Waugh or Ricky Ponting carried onto the field. They were fierce captain, who would send shivers down the spine of the oppositions even before the series started. Their words were as powerful as their performances. But sadly, Michael Clarke has not been able to portray the forceful nature of the team, inspite of it lacking that nature anymore. His mild dual with Simon Katich & Ricky Ponting has not helped his case get any stronger.

The Australian team has been plagued with lack of performances from their key players at the wrong times. Players such as Ricky Ponting, Michael Hussey, have always stood upto the task and taken challenges head on. But in the recent past they have not been able to arrest a very quick and steep slide of the Australian cricket team. A management which takes no excuses and expects top performances from their players through the calendar year, can sound a bit heartless to a player such a Michael hussey who just created a world record for a clean sweep of Man of the match awards in all the 3 tests against Sri Lanka in their own backyard. The axe can soon fall on Ricky Ponting who hasn’t scored a century in his last 20 innings. Life can’t get crueler for a person who is just behind Sachin for the maximum number of test centuries.

As a cricket buff, you can’t help to think differently, especially with their recent performances against South Africa and New Zealand. Performances which could never be co related with such a power house, were being churned out. With inability to beat a 7^th ranked team and to cross a paltry 50 runs as a team, reflects serious issues, which are quite alarming.

With injuries being the current trend in world cricket, the Australian team, which is supposed to have the best training methods & rotation policy to keep an injury free squad, is not spared either. Mitchell Johnson, Shane Watson, Shaun Marsh and the latest to that list is, the promising speedster Pat Cummins have been injury prone. It can’t be a case of over burdening of the players, as the rotation policy which is critiqued very much takes care of players and gives them the right amount of time to recover in case of any injuries. But that makes me wonder if the coaching methods with respect to the bowling have something to do with this never ending injury plague for the Australian quick’s.

The domestic league of Australia is so strong that a lot of players are drafted into the Australian team only at the age of above 25, which gives only a prodigy to figure in the team the age of below 25. In what can seem like a crisis, the strict Australian board is soon running short of ideas on how to tackle this pressure. With the headlines of the newspapers poking straight at the ego of the selectors, they could be forced to move with a mindless decision of removing Ponting and Hussey. In my view these guys just need a spark to regain their touch and they are far from being done. This case cannot be related to the blunt axing of Harbhajan, because the state of these 2 batsmen has been less pitiable to that of the veteran spinner.

Another aspect to the whole situation is that, my assessment can prove to accuse the players of lack of motivation to play for the national team. With a lot of players who have been drafted into various IPL teams, they are raking in the much needed moolah, even without representing the country. The lack of drive to represent the country for the pride of it & the selfish minds of players to be happy with such income has come out to being a shock for many. The Australian fans can just hope that this isn’t the trend set in the minds of the players. If this can be the slightest of the possibilities, it can be safe to say that Australia is just taking a different route to become the next West Indies.  

The fans are not sparing this team either. With the current Australian team missing the zing that it always had, the fans are beginning to face a panic attack. Suddenly Australia looks like a team which can’t find replacements and it can never be the same ever again. Though it can be true to an extent that this team can never be the same again, we should also be sensible enough to understand that every team goes through this phase of re building. The right time and the right environment should be given to teams to facilitate the right growth. But this doesn’t seem to be happening with respect to Australia. The resilience is missing, both on and off the field.

What this attitude of Australia has done is, it’s thrown open the competition within the other cricketing nations. In what was once considered a one sided affair with Australia literally winning every game of theirs, it didn’t give any chances to the oppositions. Now every team is made to believe in themselves that Australia can be beaten at any circumstance. It is so fabulous to understand, what a bad form of a leading team does to the confidence of others. Teams such as a strongly growing young India, the ever mysterious Pakistan, the near to perfect England team, the multi faceted South Africans & the rebuilding Lankans give themselves a chance to be at the top of the table and game. But all teams will discount Australia at their own peril; the emperor can be defeated but not his spirit.