What is to be done about the Australian cricket team? Things seem so grim right now: embarrassed in Perth, then pulverised in Hobart, and this all coming after the humiliations of the Sri Lankan Test and South African one-day series.
The only consolation is that the situation is currently so hopeless that further losses can’t possibly make the average supporter despair any more, and indeed even minor incremental improvements will feel like cause for renewed optimism.
But the idea of a powerful, all-conquering Australian team, such as became so commonplace to us in years that are not all that long ago even now? That idea is so far away it seems absurd.
However, while dark times bring dark thoughts, they also bring the brightness of ideas, and throughout the communities of fandom, punditry, administration and ex-players, ideas are flowing freely as to exactly whose fault it all is.
Is it down to bad coaching?
Is it bad captaincy?
Is it inept selection?
Is it pathetic administration at the highest levels?
Is it appalling neglect at the grassroots levels?
Is it the Sheffield Shield?
Is it the Big Bash League?
Is every Australian man with the surname “Marsh” to blame?
Is it all because of David Warner’s OLED?
These are all pertinent questions, and the answer to them all is yes. But behind the curtain of theorising and recrimination lurks a colder, nastier possibility, a possibility that dare not speak its name, so profane is its conception and so hurtful its potential impact.
What if…
I mean I hate to say it but
What if…
We must at least consider the possibility that
What if…
It doesn’t bear thinking about, I know, but nevertheless, just think for a moment
What if…
What if Australia just doesn’t have good enough players?
I know. I know. It can’t be true. Australia always has good enough players. The application may be lacking, the team dynamics may be fractured and in dire need of repair, the schedule may be poorly drawn up and too inconsiderate of player welfare, the team may just contain the wrong players because of idiotic selectors.
But we always have good enough players.
Sometimes England doesn’t have good enough players, of course. Sometimes Pakistan or South Africa’s players might not be good enough. The West Indies haven’t had good enough players for many years, and Zimbabwe may never have. These cannot be blamed for their downfalls, for a player lacking ability can’t be held responsible for demonstrating the fact.
But Australia, even in its lowest times, always has the players. They’re just not being used properly. Someone is at fault. Structures must be adjusted and cultures improved, and the undeniably high-quality players of our land shall show their mettle in the end.
But…
What if…
They can’t?
What if we have a couple of magnificent batsmen in Smith and Warner, another skillful practitioner in Usman Khawaja, a dangerous strike bowler in Starc and a reliable workhorse in Hazlewood, and… not a lot else?
What if the players being picked aren’t underperforming at all, but have actually just risen as high as they ever can?
What if the players being touted as possible replacements won’t fix anything because they’re no better?
What if winning Test matches against quality opposition is, in a very literal sense, entirely beyond the capacity of the vast majority of cricketers presently plying their trade in this country?
What if there’s no there, there?
It’s a thought that rarely occurs to anyone, of course. There’s always been a more plausible explanation. In World Series days, the players were great, they just happened to be playing somewhere else. In the mid-80s, the South African rebel tour meant the pool of top players was split, plus the retirements of Marsh, Lillee and Chappell had left an experience vacuum that it would naturally take time to fill. And anyway, many of the worst losses were against the West Indies, who were so good that saying the team was “not good enough” against them meant something entirely different than it might usually have. The experience vacuum also explained some of the more recent failures, after McGrath, Warne, Hayden, Langer and Gilchrist all departed within a couple of years of each other.
But this time, what’s the excuse? Too much cricket? Too little? Weak leadership? A dysfunctional dressing room? Over-corporatisation? The degradation of proper technique under the influence of short-form cricket?
Maybe. But maybe we need to take a deep breath and countenance the unthinkable: Australia currently does not contain a good Test eleven.
The thought is terrifying. It frightens me like nothing since I rode the ghost train when I was five. But sometimes, your worst fears become reality – in 2016 surely we know that beyond disputation.
We have to consider the possibility that the current catastrophic state of the Australian team is unavoidable, and that we may have to simply hunker down and wait the long dark winter out.
The other possibility, of course, is that Glenn Maxwell will fix it all. I’m not ruling that out by any means.
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