Suggestions of Australia’s demise are premature

 

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By Alec Swann, 12 Jun 2009 Alec Swann is a Roar Pro

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 Australian Cricket, Brett Lee, Cricket, England cricket, Ricky Ponting, The Ashes, World Twenty20

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West Indies' Shivnarine Chanderpaul, center right, celebrates winning the match with his teammate Ramnaresh Sarwan, center left, beside Australia's Mitchell Johnson, left, during the Group C Twenty20 World Cup cricket match between Australia and the West Indies at The Oval cricket ground in London, Saturday June 6, 2009. AP Photo/Matt Dunham

Being English, and I think I can safely speak for the majority of my countrymen here, it would be far too easy to regard Australia’s premature exit from the World Twenty20 as a hammer blow to their hopes of retaining the Ashes. In truth, it is anything but.

A dent to the national ego maybe, a missed opportunity to stir the competitive juices, or simply the result of a couple of bad days at the office.

But not the sign of an unstoppable decline.

The very nature of the shortest version of the game diminishes its relevance to the other styles and especially the five-day version.

If Tiger Woods lost a longest drive competition on the eve of The Open would it affect his chances over the 72 holes?

Trying to thump every ball into the stands, or trying to not have every ball thumped into the stands if you have the pleasure of bowling, takes cricket to the basest level and has to be viewed as such.

Mike Hussey’s return to normality after a stellar couple of years can’t be judged on the evidence of the past week, just as Brett Lee’s progress shouldn’t be gauged on a couple of short and expensive spells.

And judging Ricky Ponting’s captaincy on what has gone is daft. Chris Gayle’s batting at The Oval would’ve made any captain look tactically impotent and it isn’t entirely Ponting’s fault that his side failed to tame the Sri Lankan spinners.

And I don’t agree that an extra couple of weeks of preparation in Leicester – great curry houses by the way – will make any real difference.

With no games lined up, a diet of nets and training will have to suffice and, apart from perhaps boosting an individual’s confidence a bit, they will achieve as much as if their schedule had gone according to plan.

Four years ago, a great deal was read into the Australian’s defeat in a Twenty20 international at the Rose Bowl, but only after the Ashes had been surrendered.

If England can repeat the triumph of 2005, no doubt the World Twenty20 failure will be brought up as a significant factor, just as if Australia win, the extra two weeks in Leicester will have been the catalyst for their success.

The English love to mock their Antipodean cousins just as much as the opposite is true.

And the only relevant aspect of the Aussies’ Twenty20 demise is that it has provided a couple of weeks worth of comic ammunition.

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