By Jim Morton
March 5th 2008 @ 1:59am
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India up-end Aussies with series whitewash
Australia crash-tackled and shoulder-charged but it was India who last night finally up-ended the world champions with a tri-series finals whitewash.
More cricket
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The jubilant Indians finished their controversial tour in triumph with a nail-biting nine-run win at the Gabba to send Australian vice-captain Adam Gilchrist [...]
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mudskipper said | March 5th 2008 @ 9:38am | Report comment
Congratulations India….from an Aussie…The Australian team need to get over their self importance, furthermore their belief of their golden age of Australian cricket. The Neo Untouchables and all that rubbish…They have been the worst sledging team for years. They proudly state that they’re only answerable to the team, well boys you represent Australia and your behaviour is answerable to the Australian public…and it’s poor and disreputable…We are all answerable for our own actions…
One last thing the Golden Numbers and Trim on the one day uniform is exceedingly pretentious…. The worst summer of Australian cricket I can remember….That nonsense is going on in the Australian change rooms and where is the leadership? If it continues Pointing should go and get a leadership a Captain that can contain the teams’ behaviour…
Millster said | March 5th 2008 @ 11:11am | Report comment
I agree Mudskipper. Thank god this cricketing summer is over. Some decent periods of play, but overall it has been downright embarassing to behold – cynical gamesmanship and terrible attitude both on and off the field. I say that equally of the Aussies and Indians.
Phil Coorey said | March 5th 2008 @ 12:43pm | Report comment
I was so excited when we lost last night. We needed this season to end quickly.
Harry said | March 5th 2008 @ 12:53pm | Report comment
Yep time to rebuild for a few seasons. However lets hope this isn’t the start of long term decline like the Reds, West Indies, Welsh rugby
Reg said | March 5th 2008 @ 12:54pm | Report comment
lets see some new faces in the team.
Haddin, Hussey (the other one), Voges, Ronchi, White, Heal, Doherty, Hilfenhaus, Nofke.
A new broom so to speak.
cosmos forever said | March 5th 2008 @ 1:33pm | Report comment
What was amazing about last night’s game (aside from it not being a sell-out AND the fact that is is now two tri-series losses in a row for the ‘the unbeatables’) was the way Australia lost crucial wickets at crucial times.
Each time they looked like getting on top another one would go. It will be very interesting to see how other cricketing nations react to this loss – I reckon you might see more than just Harbi and the Indians taking on the Aussies on and off the park from now on.
Australia looked a bit like a bully that had been kissed goodbye by his mum at the school gates in front of the class…
Thank god this season is over!
spiro zavos said | March 5th 2008 @ 1:42pm | Report comment
Several things have come out of this cricket season. Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne are impossible to replace. Brett Lee has risen to the occasion but there is no obvious replacement for Warne, who was a wicket-taker and an economical stock bowler wrapped up in one roly-poly package. The Australian team is now too old compared with India with its 19 year-old fast bowler and leg-spinner, both facing test and ODI careers of 10 years.
For years it was been easy selecting the Australian test and ODI sides. Now it becomes hard as the selectors have to make tough decisions about rejunevating a side that has grown old, successfully.
I wonder, too, if the Australian side has lost some of its mojo with the criticism of its vicious sledging tactics.
I was not impressed with Michael Clarke tackling Sachin Tendulkar, nor with Brett Lee’s beam-ball to Tendulkar the game before when he was in the 90s. Am I being unduly suspicious but why Tendulkar singled out both times?
Lee claims the beam ball was accidental. Tendulkar has accepted the explanation.
The beam ball hit Tendulkar on the shoulder. Lee’s beam balls seem, in my opinion, to be accurate (something that, say, Harmison’s wayward balls aren’t). Generally, too, they are batsmen who are in the process of winning the game for the opponents of Australia (see the beam balls at NZ’s Brendon MacCullum a season or two ago).
El Capitan said | March 5th 2008 @ 1:56pm | Report comment
Intresting point Spiro.
Perhaps on another matter, its time for Ponting to hand the leadership to Clarke for the ODI and for him to focus on test cricket? It happened to previous captains before him. Time to send in some new blood and new faces of Australian cricket, and faces that will be with the team in years to come.
mudskipper said | March 5th 2008 @ 2:32pm | Report comment
Ponting can bat and place a good field but he isn’t a Captain…He not a leader… His media interviews are just photo opportunities with nothing to say… full of shoulder shrugs and no comments. He doesn’t know what to say or do… more over what is the right thing to say, he is visibly baffled…Its a good time to find a new leader…
sportym said | March 5th 2008 @ 9:41pm | Report comment
Right now i am working in the UK, and my work mates were surprised when i was not upset that Australia lost. My responce was bascially that the team has become so arrogant that many australians cannot associate with them. Though they maybe the best in the work, the way the carry on, is very un-australian. How bad is it when Australians support the opposition??? They remind me of Hewitt when he was in from and winning tennis matches….a spoiled brat that had his hime crowd booing him.
What australia needs is a captain that will bring some respectability to the team. Pointing has to go, though a good cricketer, a horrible and uncharismatic leader that fuels the arrogance of the current team. I was home for xmas, and when australia beat india to equal the 17 straight wins or whatever it was, the was pointing carried on as captain, was plain disgusting, not matter what nationality you are, and as an australian that was plain BS. Get rid of the spoiled little brat. His attitude reminds me on matt henjak……with less punching…
Danny said | March 5th 2008 @ 10:29pm | Report comment
I suggested to my work colleagues in 1997 that sledging in cricket would be banned in our lifetime and was rubbished for it! My view stands.
I was truely ashamed of our behaviour in the Sydney test, and of Ricky’s indignance in the week after. Hayden’s appalling spray at Harby on the radio last week was pathetic – his batting remains solid but his attitude seems to becoming that of someone at the end of his career who doesn’t give a toss. Symonds lurks complicitly in the background loading the gun but rarely pulling the trigger openly. M Clarke needs to be pulled into line before he becomes completely indoctrinated with S Waugh’s “mental disintregation” tactic. It started way before Waugh though – the silence of the Nine commentary team on the subject is deafening.
My four suggestions for ICC:
1 Ban sledging
2 Give each team 2 video challenges per innings in tests and ODIs
3 Use snicko, hot spot and hawkeye (with hawkeye only out if the ball hits middle/leg middle/off at least 10% below the stumps)
4 Introduce a toss for the series – winner picks batting or fielding for game 1,3,5 – loser 2,4,6 etc.
Re 4 I’m sick of the toss playing such a large role in test series.
onside said | March 6th 2008 @ 12:07am | Report comment
The series long farewell to Gilchrist has been a diversion, along
with the strange inclusion of Haddin for whatever reason.
Much is made of the Pura Cup and AIS contribution to test cricket
Where then is our next world class off spinner.
Abhishek said | March 6th 2008 @ 4:30pm | Report comment
Hi,
As an Indian, its nice to know that not all australians are like the australian cricket team. This was one of my favourite teams a couple of years back because of their consistency and their clinical approach. However it looks like they have become complacent. A good parallel can be drawn with the Indian team which after its shakeup has become far more eager and ‘hungry.’ I think Cricket Australia too should think on those lines.
Aussie Sports Nut said | March 6th 2008 @ 5:45pm | Report comment
As I said on this site a month ago (see http://www.aussiesportsnut.com/2008/02/indian-resurgence-exposes-aussie.html)
the Indian’s have asked some really hard questions of the Australians – particularly regarding the mental strength of our batsmen and the quality of our bowlers.
Again in the final series we saw numerous times the top level Aussie batsmen making poor decisions when under pressure. As cosmos said they are a little too much like the bully who just discovered there are bigger kids than him in the schoolyard. Lets hope it is simply due to the fact that this side really hasn’t had to deal with being challenged since the Ashes loss in 2005. That wake-up call sparked a fabulous resurgence in focus and discipline – lets hope the Aussies respond to this as champions we hope they are rather than spoiled brats we fear they may be.