Oh woe is me. The audience got a little hot after I proposed Australia has dominated the Aussie summer of cricket for too long and has thus been very boring; that we need a real contest to put some interest back into it.
Lets make it clear, I’m referring to home form here, home form, home form, okay!
I was ‘in a time warp’, had been asleep for the last three years, and hadn’t noticed they weren’t number one any more. Oh really?
Yes, thanks for pointing that out, I hadn’t noticed. Of course, I noticed, I had a party to celebrate when they slipped, got really drunk true Aussie style and urinated all over the bar.
So I was wrong?
Well let us have a look at this last three year domestic period. The West Indies and Pakistan, drubbed, before that New Zealand, South Africa beat us, put a bit of life back into it, Sri Lanka destroyed, India beat. Before that, forget it. So they haven’t dominated the Aussie summer?
Professional Geoff Lemon scoffs and questions my claim of stars not performing here, in particular Tendulkar. Yes, I may be a bit harsh, he has scored centuries here true, a double not out once many years ago, nice.
But overall not enough.
This guy is supposed to have channeled the spirit of the Don. Instead of the funny elephant deity on the shrine, Tendulkar has a little ceramic of Don, with the big elephant nose hacked off the real thing and clumsily stuck with Areldite onto the Dons mug, hoping no one would notice.
I did.
For a man of his apparent genius, I expect more, like Lara, before the cheating Ian Healy ran him out knowingly without ball in glove.
Okay, Australia has been bad overseas – which I blame on the loss of the tour beard and too many tattoos – which is why I have hope of a contest this year.
But home ground advantage is a huge factor in cricket, more than any other sport, and Australia are extremely hard to beat in the land girt by sea, and when the Haddin-Hussey show rolled, it was looking rather familiar, and unlike most Aussies, I find that boring.
But alas, no it didn’t work out that way, and thank goodness. That huge English total was like attending a French guillotine execution, justice, payback and entertainment all in one.
But it was a matter of the pitch. By the time England came to bat again, that pitch was flat, a few cracks to help, Strauss had luck too. I would have hated to see Australia bat on that. We would have seen a reverse result.
But the Australian public is feeding on its own pessimism. The Aussies aren’t as bad as you all think despite the overseas losses.
Yes, they’ve declined, we even consider Bollinger for selection, lots of examples of mediocrity, but Johnson is still a quality bowler, was slow there at time, but is just out of form. Those batters can still bat, they just lack the discipline of the bygone era. They can still kick butt.
My skepticism from years of watching them destroy people, has set deep wounds and lingers, and in the land of golden soil and wealth for toil, they are still on top until fallen. Which is why I wish they get a good rogering, and there is still a chance they will I’d say.
But just a chance.
I’d still have my money on Australia.
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