The rise and fall of the Australians

[Colourful Chaddi]

Over the past 15 years we have seen one of the best teams to ever play test cricket. We have seen legends in this team such as fast bowler Glenn Magrath, wicket-keeper Adam Gilchrist and arguably the greatest spinner the world has seen Shane Warne. We have seen the opening pair of Justin Langer and Matthew Hayden; this pair scores at such a rate that they make Gordon Greenidge and Desmond Haynes look like stone Wallers. We have witnessed one of the worlds most natural leaders in Steve Waugh who transformed a good team into a world class team who could bully any team in the world. Maybe the only weak point in this team has been their series loss to India in 2001 but they turned that around when they trashed India in their own back yard in 2004. In this article I will discuss the rise and fall of the mighty Australians.

The rise
First of all if a team wants to be a world beating team they need a good bowling attack and Australia do surly have one, with legends like fast bowler Glenn Magrath and leg spinner Shane Warne.
Lets start of by talking about Glenn Magrath. He is so accurate and deadly with his bowling that he an asset to the team, how many times have we seen the captain or the best batsmen in the side become Glenn Magrath’s bunny? Michael Atherton (19), Brain Lara (13), Jimmy Adams (12), SL Campbell (11), Alec Stewart (10), Mark Butcher (9), Stephen Fleming (8) and Nasser Hussein (8) have all been Magrath’s bunnies. England Opener Michael Atherton and West Indian super star Brain Lara are both are/were the captain and the best batsmen of their team. This has given great advantage to Australia when they were removed by Glenn Magrath, removing a captain from a team can have a lot of affect on their morality which leads to teams playing under-par.
Now lets talk about the spin king Shane Warne. Wisden chose him as the best 5 players of the 20th century, which should say enough about this player. He was the spinner to reach 400 and 500 wickets, and he was the first cricket player to reach 600 wickets when he dismissed Marcus Trescothick. With his wicket taking ability he has given an extra edge to the Australian team which no other team has had. He is an incredible help to the team because on a 5th day wicket he can be the opposition’s worst nightmare.

The other reason for the success of this Australian team for the last 15 years was their incredible fielding; they had Ricky Ponting at backward point, and reliable slip catchers in Mark Waugh and Taylor. Fielding just doesn’t make the score board look good it also helps the morale of the fielding team, I know how it feels when your team members miss-fields and drops catches its no good for the team morale. This is why Australia were very keen to improve their fielding, there have made a bench mark for all the other teams and only South Africa have reached their level of fielding.

Steve Waugh, he was one of the greatest leaders of the game. He influenced a good team into a world class team. He emphasized on good fielding, winning is most important and he also emphasized the Australian tail-end batsmen to score runs or hang around with a specialist batsmen. This has given Australians a huge advantage, how many times have we seen the Australians tail-enders save the Australians from losing?

The other person who has been a catalyst in the Australian success has been wicket-keeper/batsmen Adam Gilchrist. He averages over 50 with the bat and his strike rate is 80+, he was named by wisden as the fastest scorer ever in test cricket. He comes down when the score is at 220-5 or 400-5 and he absolutely takes the game away from the opposition in no time at all because he scores at such a fast rate. He has many times given victory to Australia when losing was certain.

The fall
The obvious fall of this team is the retirement of players. The retirements of mark Waugh and Taylor has made the slip cordon weaker. The retirement of Steve Waugh has had a lot of affect on this Australian team because Australia lost one of the best captains of all time and Ricky Ponting was made the captain. In my eyes Ricky Ponting is not a very good captain, he doesn’t have a very good cricket brain and most of his decisions come from senior players like Shane Warne, Adam Gilchrist and Darren Lehman. The other obvious reason for the Australian downfall is that the Australian bowling attack is getting old. Fast bowlers Glenn Magrath (35) and Jason Gillespie (30) are on the wrong side of 30. Leg spinning legend Shane Warne is 35. All these bowlers are at the end of their careers, so after they retire people will be wondering who can replace them, surly there is no Shane Warne or Glenn Magrath out there. The other downfall in Australian cricket is the fielding. Australia has really done poorly in fielding lately, they used to be the best in the business but now they really lack and this another reasons for Australian downfall.

[Irish Left Armer]

In fairness it's a little bit early to be talking about a fall. If they win the last test they will retain the Ashes and they are still the number 1 ranked team in both forms of the game.

I don't doubt that the team is going to get worse over the next few years but they haven't fallen too far yet.

[Six & Out]

As I've said earlier and something that I beleive Rachael shouted down, the Australians won't fall very far. Their setup is STILL far superior to ours in that the competition for professional contracts is far greater than ours and the general way their Cricket is structured still makes ours look archaic (The Academy aside, which we nicked off Australia anyway). Sure, they'll never unearth McGrath and Warne in the same generation again, not for a long time but to say they'll go back to the 1980's is just not realistic.

The gradual decline of the Australian Empire I'll accept but the Fall? No. They'll still be ultra-competitive for many years and really, with the lack of real competition in Test Cricket, maybe India apart, I only see England and Australia providing real contests of substance over the next five years.

[Rachael]

Originally Posted by Six & Out

As I've said earlier and something that I beleive Rachael shouted down, the Australians won't fall very far.

Not me: I might dispute the claim that they were as high as some suggested in the past... but Simon Hughes argued in today's Telegraph that the Aussies have come unstuck through arrogance as much as anything else.. and I'm inclined to agree.

I go so far as to say tht had Steve Waugh been captaining this Aussie side... I think we'd be looking at the Aussies going into this final Test 1-0 up (more convincing win at Lords, more spirited fights since).

There's no way you can just replace guys like Warne and McGrath.. but there are always many ways of skinning a cat.. and you do not HAVE to bat sides out of games and then grind them down with constraining bowling. England have shown that you don't even need to score many runs. This Aussie crew can learn from that. They need to. Get that straight... and start respecting opponents once again.. and they'll still be a huge opponent.

Any one of Langer, Ponting, Martyn, Clarke, Gilchrist, Warne, Lee and McGrath would walk into any other Test side in the world (hardest would be Lee into the England setup, but Lee for Harmison would certainly have strengthened England this series). More to the point.. most sides would be interested in Hussey, MacGill and (god help us) Tait... and I suspect Shane Watson and Symonds would be automatic selections for most Test sides...

I'd also not write off Gillespie and Kasprowicz just yet: they've done more in the past 18 months than most international bowlers will ever do in that sort of timeframe... and one bad series shouldn't see the end of them.