Australia is on track to regain a high place in the cricketing rankings. Within three years it will be challenging England for the top spot. And the reason is simple. Australian cricket has taken a hard look at itself and realised it had become complacent. It takes guts to admit mistakes and grit to set out to right them.
For 10 years, maybe longer, Australia was the benchmark. Shrewd appointments were made, abilities were recognised and correctly assigned.
The last part is crucial. A former player might be a fine bowling coach and a useless selector. Mostly the chairmen of selectors were modest cricketers with astute brains and thick skins.
Laziness
Somewhere along the way the Aussies lost their way. Laziness of the mind set in; jobs for the boys became a custom, imagination went missing, the basics were forgotten. In the terminology used by economists, Australia fell behind the curve.
It is no coincidence that England began Twenty20 or even that Allen Stanford landed at Lord's. Alas the latter turned out to be a charlatan. Plainly, though, England was striving.
At first the Australians made the mistake of trying to recover lost ground. The Big Bash is an example of that sort of thinking. Only two forms of cricket will be played at the height of the coming Australian summer — a Test series with India and a domestic T20 competition lasting six weeks. Big Bash is a belated attempt to catch up with the English and even to outstrip them.
Fresh start
Officials had fallen into a trap. A fresh start was needed. Mostly, though, the Australians have taken decisive action. Two reviews were instigated after the recent defeats, both of them entrusted to independent people with impressive track records in their fields.
One report has been produced and already several of its recommendations have been adopted. The selection panel has been sacked, a new head coach has been sought, specialists have been hired and a more professional and rigorous approach has been adopted across the board.
In short Australia's response to its drift from first to fifth in the rankings has been ruthless. The stables have been cleaned out. Those in charge deserve credit for putting their own positions in peril. That does not happen in countries where people come to the game for the wrong reasons, vanity or opportunism or the social milieu.
Cricket is about players and spectators not administrators or journalists or umpires. Already improvements can be seen in the Australian team. Even with Muttiah Muralitharan in repose, it's not that easy to win in Sri Lanka. Moreover the visitors prevailed in all three forms of the game. That might not reveal excellence but it does show hunger.
Tougher test
The coming trip to South Africa will be a tougher examination, and it's followed by a home series against India. By the end of these campaigns the Aussies will have a better idea about their progress on the field. It'd be unwise to underestimate their intent.
It has long been the contention of this column that, as Bob Dylan put it, everything is either “busy being born or busy dying.” Everything has a culture, a state of mind. If it is healthy things will grow. If it is weak or selfish sooner or later things will go wrong. Moreover culture can be detected in five minutes. Walk into a school or a company or a dressing room and feel it.
Australia has turned the corner. How many others acknowledge their predicament? The West Indies is a busted flush, Sri Lanka is in disarray, Bangladesh remains forever young, and South Africa is ruled by wrong persons. And India — has the fightback begun yet? Has the need been recognised?
Published - October 08, 2011 01:02 am IST
