The falling Australian supremacy?

By Rajadhyax

Just like the West Indies ruled the world of cricket for nearly thirty years starting from the late 1960s, the Australians dominated over everyone from the late 1980s – and some would like us to believe that they still do. Starting with Allan Border’s captaincy, the Aussies started to get a steady flow of master cricketers and excellent leadership to notch one great triumph after another. Mark Tailor, Steve Waugh and later Ricky Ponting’s side continued the good work with the help of legends like Glen McGrath, Shane Warne, Mark Waugh, Adam Gilchrist, Ian Healy and others. Two major bastions of Test cricket, beating West Indies in West Indies and the Indians in India, were broken in this period. The ODI World Cup was also pocketed by the side from ‘down under’. But then, as they say, whatever goes up has to come down at some point.

The mighty, invincible Aussies started to lose a little too regularly in recent times, starting around 2003-04. Especially after the retirement of Waugh, Warne, McGrath and Gilchrist in quick succession the losses were pretty regular. The Proteas beat them in a 434 run world record chase. The Indians beat them in a Test at Perth on the back of a test series loss in India. And the Aussies knew that without the controversy of the Sydney Test, the Indians had taken the series from them, in their backyard. Then the Indians followed it up by a tri-series win in Australia. Loss to Bangladesh was the bitter ignominy that was in no way lessened by the loss of the Ashes series twice in England since 2003.

The awe and the aura of invincibility have fast diminished. Today a few sides in the world actually believe that they can win against the Aussies. The recent performances at the Champions Trophy notwithstanding, there are many occasions when the once-unbeatable side is either losing or avoiding a loss by the skin of its teeth. This is more true about the Tests than the ODIs or the T20 matches. A Peter Siddle or a Nathan Hauritz just does not create the same fear or confusion as a McGrath or Warne. Stuart Clarke is a fair weather bowler and looks great only when the conditions support his kind of bowling. Hilfenhaus is still too new to prove much on the international level or for us to make lasting comments about. Bret Lee can be seriously dangerous but he is in and out of the side due to frequent injuries.

On the batting side, neither Phil Jacques nor Michael Clarke has the same destructive power as a Hayden and Gilchrist. Men like North and Fergusson also have a lot to prove as yet. In the event, Ponting often becomes the lone wolf McQuade on the batting front. Even the famed fielding falls apart in some of the longer matches. The number of catches dropped and miss-fields done by Aussies is surprisingly more now than about ten years back.

And it is not just the losses or their frequency that is a basis of this whole argument. It is also the way or the manner in which they are losing. And the close encounters they win.

Their ICC ranking – though not the ultimate indicator of success – too is nothing to write home about. The ICC rankings may not be flawless but they surely show the percentage of matches that a team is winning and losing. And the Australian positions do not show the domination of the past.

It is clear that the once world beating side has to do some introspection. First of all Ponting does not look, behave or act as decisively as a Border or a Waugh when the going gets tough. He evidently dithers when the opposition gets the better of his team. His leadership has been questioned again and again by people, Aussies, of the calibre of Jeff Thompson and Bill Laurie. Secondly, it is a bit to clear that the second line of players are not really legends in the making. They don’t evoke the same fear that some previous Aussies did even early on in their careers.

Nowhere are we trying to argue that the Australians are a spent side or that they must be relegated to a low spot. But certainly the sheen of authority and domination that they have had for well near two decades is fading and fading very fast. South Africa and India have especially dented the Aussie pride a little too often for them to ignore as a flash in the pan. The competition is getting too close for their comfort.

After all one doesn’t want one of the greatest cricketing nations to go under the weather and make it easy for its competitors.