Aussie cricketer’s finals loss three weeks in the making

A couple of years ago while doing media work at a non-descript rugby league training session, the players were noticeably tierce and in fact indignant towards the assembled throng. It was at that moment a former player, now a colleague, delivered a line never forgotten: The players reflect the coach.

Such a simple proclamation, yet so apt. Never more so than what is happening with the Australian cricket team. It’s been three weeks since John Buchanan bemoaned the lack of competition in this triangular series. He used the website of his governing body to point out how poor the bowling and in particular the batting had been from both visiting sides. How could these teams be so selfish as to not perform? After all, Australia has a World Cup to get ready for.

Can you imagine anything so arrogant?Since then almost every action and every statement from the team has reflected that attitude.

The first chink in the armour came at the SCG eight days ago. Australia weren’t just beaten by England, they were hammered. Four pacemen were used, with no spinners. No spinners in

Sydney? Doesn’t matter, all about combinations. Yet in the aftermath of the hiding, stand in captain Adam Gilchrist didn’t revert to the tried and true comments about the benefit of having a loss, that it will get everyone’s mind on the job. No, he regaled in pointing out how this loss, this 92 run belting, points out

Australia’s ‘greatness’. This first defeat of the summer somehow validating his side’s achievements. Huh?
Two days later the attack is spanked once again, this time by

New Zealand. Ricky Ponting saves the team, while Brad Hodge finally contributes, ensuring the focus of the night is steered away from the near prospect of losing two straight games.
Yesterday,

Australia butchered the first final. There’s no other way to put it. Complacency had taken over. 1 for 170 and the game was over. Wickets start to fall. No problem, someone else will surely cash in. Michael Clarke builds an innings then throws away his wicket by refusing to stretch out and slide his bat. His partner Lara Bingle apparently has no knowledge of the game. Even she knows he stuffed up. A moderate target becomes colossal when

England falter to be 3 for 15. Game over again. Catches are missed, run outs are not collected and the horse bolts.

England 1-nil.
Apart from attitude, why has it gone so sour? The handling of the bowlers might have something to do with it.It’s been several years now since ‘rotation’ became a dirty word, yet this bowling attack has been rotated and rested into oblivion.

The likes McGrath, Bracken and Johnson have all suffered at a lack of game time. McGrath has always been of the belief that he needs miles in the legs, while the left armers just want to be accepted. Neither has made an irresistible enough claim.

Poor Stuart Clark has come off a landmark test year, yet in the one day side he’s made to prove himself, every game. He’s now off the conveyer belt and probably a bit relieved. Another victim is Shaun Tait, who through no fault of his own, has become the Paul Hauff of cricket. A poor debut, but then with raw pace and accuracy, takes 1 for 26 off 10 in a Kiwi innings of nearly 300. Services no longer required. Begs the question of why even bother drafting him in? Curious choices, all of them, but none as strange as the treatment of the only genuine spinner.

Brad Hogg, while not blond or muscular or possessing a trophy blonde girlfriend to conveniently fill camera time, has been - outside of Ponting - the most dependable player in the squad. His numbers in the last six months have been amongst the world’s elite. In Hogg’s previous eight appearances before last nights final, he’d taken 14 wickets at an average of 12, with a strike rate of 25. Staggering. His reward: One match out of eight in the preliminary round of the triangular series.

With perhaps two finals left here and three games across the Tasman, you would think the team would be just about settled. Apparently not. Adam Voges has come from nowhere to get a start in

New Zealand. Sure that makes Hodge feel terrific.
This team might be treating these games as glorified net sessions, but they’ve proven they have limitations. Matt Hayden is still top shelf, but struggles to score when the big shot doesn’t fire. Hodge is still no lock to be a hit, and with no Andrew Symonds, the middle order looks robotic and incapable of decimating attacks at the death. A big minus on the postage stamp grounds of the

Caribbean.The argument could be made that the bowling has a sameness to it. With no Tait and aside from Lee, the attack runs at the same speed with similar line and length. Even Cameron White’s skidders blend in with everybody else.
This World Cup is not a one-horse race. Someone better tell the Aussies.

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