‘They look like a club side’, lamented a
disappointed friend of mine. The way the team went about chasing a par score of
270 against England in the Champion’s Trophy earlier this month betrayed the
famous Aussie fighting spirit. The result was a foregone conclusion soon after
the chase started, there was no semblance of anyone putting his hands up to
take the fight to the opposition. That has been the story of Australia in this
Champion’s Trophy and at times in these past few years.
Having dominated World Cricket since early 90s to
the mid-2000s, it is distressing to see the deterioration in the team who were
once the trend-setters for the rest of the world. Their rigorous systems,
planning and strategy and careful selections moulded many a great and quite a
few effective players in the last two decades. But they have failed to connect
that with an eye on pragmatism in the recent past.
India and Australia have in some senses faced a
similar phase in these last few years - the greats of the game from both teams
were expected to leave the team one after another. If Australia saw the last of
Glenn McGrath, Shane Warne, Adam Gilchrist, Mathew Hayden and Ricky Ponting on
the International Cricket field, India have lost Sourav Ganguly, Anil Kumble,
Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman and Sachin Tendulkar (so far in the shorter format).
The selectors in India have often been accused of
being lackadaisical and not pre-empting a plan for the phase-out, but the
restraint they exercised and the wisdom they saw in having a potent combination
of experience and youth, seems to have worked well for the team. While the
ability of the Test team especially when playing abroad is yet to be tested,
the limited overs team seems pretty settled at the moment.
As for Australia, the selectors have been far too
inconsistent with too much of chopping and changing. They have tended to act with what could only be
called conceit and myopia - the manner in which the likes of Michael Bevan,
Brad Hodge, Simon Katich, Nathen Bracken, Brad Haddin, Nathan Lyon and Shaun
Marsh have been handled in the last few years goes to explain this. The first
four had their career cruelly cut short despite having the quality, age,
fitness and skills to command a place in the team for a few years more. Most of
these players could have gone a long way in ensuring a smoother change of
guard. Different selectors have served on the job for Australia in the last
decade – Trevor Hohns, Andrew Hilditch and John Inverarity but they’ve all been
guilty of the same mistake, severing the life of a player much before the
use-by-date and ringing in inconsistent changes without quite gauging how it
could hurt the team’s fortunes in the medium to long run.
If the selectors were indeed convinced with their
moves where the ‘form-age’ combination has often been cited as the reason for
the changes, it was not paralleled with a planned investment in youth
especially in the batting department.
Recently, Mike Hussey’s public admission that he
was forced to act selfish and keep his retirement plans under wraps to protect
his place in the last few games, speaks of the lack of trust bred by Cricket
Australia and their team of selectors. It’s only a matter of hypothesis now,
the kind of impact a senior pro like Hussey would have had on the dressing room
had his superior fitness levels and skills been used for a year or two more.
To let bygones be bygones, Australia could do well
with some strong leadership and trust, to focus on building the team together.
Michael Clarke along with Micky Arthur could work on mending fences with
seniors in the team including Shane Watson and Mitchell Johnson.
High-handedness and a lack of consistency in dealing with disciplinary issues
as we have seen, have had an adverse impact on the environment of the dressing
room.
As
Australia look to rebuild from one of their worst slumps seen in recent years,
the cricket-lovers and players would be hoping that the selectors bring in
changes carefully and back their picks. A touch of humility should do them no
harm.
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