Australian cricket must brace for considerable upheaval should the Ashes be lost at home this summer, former Test captain Mark Taylor has warned.
Influentially placed as a Channel Nine commentator and a Cricket Australia board director, as well as a universally respected former skipper, Taylor said the national team has been playing with enough verve to be winning far more often than it has done.
But he reckoned the humiliation of a home Ashes defeat would remove what goodwill that exists for a side that has slipped to fifth in the world under the watch of captain Ricky Ponting, coach Tim Nielsen and selection chairman Andrew Hilditch.
“I think it could (result in upheaval), no doubt about that, I think if Australia don’t win this series, and it doesn’t matter if it’s an Ashes series or any series in this country, Australia are expected to win at home,” Taylor said on Tuesday.
“If Australia lose this series, I think probably throughout the series you’ll see some changes, not just at the end of it.
“I’m sure the senior players in particular are aware of that, that’s why Ricky Ponting’s as fit as he’s been for ages, they want to stem that flow.”
The flow Taylor speaks of has been a steady one of poor sessions to cancel out strong ones and matches lost from winning positions.
“If Australia are going to win this series they’ve got to try to minimise those really bad days that they’ve had in Test matches in recent times,” said Taylor.
“They’re playing well enough to win games of cricket against the best sides in the world, they’ve just got to make sure they do all they can to turn around those bad moments, make one of them their moment and I’m sure the momentum will go their way.”
Taylor argued there was a tendency to lose concentration at times in the great Australian teams of the past, only for Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath to regather the lost ground.
These lapses still occur, but the team lacks the personnel to make up for them.
“It’s about realising they don’t quite have the personnel like McGrath and Warne like they used to, so you can’t afford to switch off,” he said.
“If you go back to that one dayer we saw in Melbourne where Sri Lanka were 8-107 chasing 240, I think Australia just for a moment there, a period of 20 minutes to half an hour, lost concentration with the ball.
“They thought the job was done and it was pretty well done, but Australian sides five years ago could do that.
“Now when they give away the momentum like they did in that one dayer, it is a lot harder for them to get it back, so it’s realising they can’t afford to have those moments in a game.”
Bayman
Guest
I tend to agree with Tony. Lose the Ashes and I'd be surprised, very surprised, if there was not some upheaval and starting with the team leadership in which I include Nielsen. Now Mark Taylor was, I think, one of Australia's great captains of all time, let alone recent times, but those concentration lapses he speaks of were a trade mark of his term as skipper. I lost count of the number of "dead rubber" Tests we lost under Taylor. We'd always win the series then lose the last Test when it didn't matter. It used to infuriate me. It's the type of mindset which creeps into "professional" sport. You know the drill - "We've won the series, we still get paid truckloads, it doesn't matter!" Unfortunately, to us poor fans it did matter. I'm not suggesting losing deliberately, as in fixing, but I am suggesting a less than 100% effort, even if subconciously. We lost too many dead rubbers for it to be coincidence and it certainly suggested the team was just going through the motions. Steve Waugh, at least in my memory, put a stop to that. Not as good a captain as Taylor but he played every Test as if it meant something - and I, for one, was grateful. In this regard, I suspect Ponting is more Waugh than Taylor but, unfortunately, he's not quite as good a captain as either of them.
Tony
Guest
Thanks for the hot news, Tubby. After a string of losses, poor form, questionable selections, dreadful preparation and losing the Ashes, it would be a shock if there was NOT a juicy rumpus accompanied by violent finger-pointing and extreme scape-goating.