Cricket's only hope - to rise out of the Ashes

[Seamer]

Rememer the dominance of the Windies in the 80,s? Do you remember the huge crowds and massive public interest whenever they toured here. We did,nt even mind getting flogged by them because we watched them purely for the spectacle and to be thrilled by their brilliance. On the odd occasion when we beat them, Australia went into raptures. Was world cricket weak because of THEIR dominance. Definately not. I remember all the kids heading to the nets or backyard pretending the were Viv Richards or Gus Logie ect - they were all champions. They lifted cricket to the next level and brought some life back into test cricket that had been stagnating with a long procession of long, boring drawn-out drawn tests and series. Those Aussie kids that aspired to be like the windies have now grown up and are now proceeding to dominate the cricket world. I have no doubt that there is now a whole bunch of youngsters out there all around the world aspiring to be like the Aussies that will in turn dominate the cricket world in another 10-15 years - particularly the sub continent. Australia has set a high benchmark and that is why huge crowds all around the world show up to watch them. When Australia plays, unless there is rain, the game will see a result which is what the crowd wants. The rest of the cricketing world fears losing while the Aussies fear not winning - a subtle but tangible difference
The onus is on the rest of the world to catch up with Australia and until they do so, world cricket will continue to be weak. Australias approach is to score runs quickly so they have time to get 20 wickets and win and are more than willing to risk losing to win a game. That is what the spectators want. It is not Australias fault that most other test nations are getting poor crowds to their games. It is their fault for playing boring,low risk cricket. Australia wont get toppled until a few other nations start playing agressive cricket like us. The only other nation that plays in that aggresive vein is Pakastan, but they have a young team and have a way to go yet. You can forget England- they are still to fearful of losing