With The Ashes lost, cricket fans en masse have turned their attention to finding fault and identifying the reasons for our failure. Unfortunately the same noises are not as forthcoming from within the team.
When looked at with the comments after the wonderful WACA win, this lack of attention gives us a clue to a core problem facing the Australian cricket team: too great a focus on the sizzle at the expense of their steak.
There was a sigh of relief amongst cricket fans after the great Perth victory as ‘normal service was resumed’ and in the wash up from the game, the team and its leader were bullish about their chances in Melbourne.
At this point alarm bells should have been ringing as Ricky Ponting spoke enthusiastically about the return to the more aggressive style of play which had become such a hallmark of the Australian team.
His comments were concerning because being a great sledger does not make you great at cricket. While there have certainly been a large number of great cricketers who have been great sledgers, there have also been a lot of equally great cricketers who have not.
The comments of the Australian captain suggest that he has mistaken an instance of correlation with causality, a common mistake.
Correlation is when you get passed by the same bus every day as you walk to work. The two occurrences, you walking to work and the bus going by are happening independent of each other. Indeed, if you drove to work instead, the bus would still being going past at the same time and visa versa.
Causality on the other hand is when the bus stops every time you stand at the bus stop. If you (or someone else of course) weren’t standing there the bus wouldn’t stop, you caused a change.
Sledging the opposition is something the great Australian teams of the past forty years have done with some gusto. It has become such a celebrated part of the game that there are regular articles written about great moments in slagging off and the commentators (certainly the Nine crew) are happy to talk like it is a normal part of every game.
However, it didn’t win us games of cricket. Shane Warne took 700 wickets because he was a brilliant spin bowler, not a complete smart alec. When Herschelle Gibbs “Dropped the World Cup” we still needed to score a heap of runs and then bowl and field like demons to actually win the game.
Ricky Ponting seems to believe that this is not the case, and that the more energetic sledging in Perth actually helped us win the game. This has the same logic as noting that since Bradman scored a bucket load of runs without wearing a helmet, all the current players should bat in baggy greens as well.
Correlation, not cause and effect. Bradman’s runs were scored regardless of his headwear status, they weren’t caused by his lack of skid lid.
This is unfortunate since this Australian Cricket Team is a fabulous team of sportsmen. Watch them run out on the field together, all of them in peak physical condition, looking smart and uniform in their baggy greens. They yell constant support to each other and rush in with delight every time a wicket is taken.
Off the field they are always patting each other on the back, throwing a football or frisbee around and of course, talking each other and themselves up. But none of these things will help you get a wicket though, or let you protect yours when you need to bad for nine sessions to save a test match.
The uncomfortable truth for the Australian Cricket Team is that all that stuff is far less important then being good at cricket. And the players on the English Cricket Team are much better at playing cricket then them. If they want to be better, its not coming about through better sledging, more time in the gym, baggier green, team unity, any of these things.
It will come about through practicing cricket… a lot. Hundreds of hours in the nets, thousands of balls both bowled and faced. Jonathon Trott spoke after his near run out at Melbourne that he practiced diving to make his ground. How Phillip Hughes must have wished he had spent a little more time doing that, and maybe a little less throwing the footy around becoming a better team player.
Cricket at its heart is a game for individuals, unlike football where a team mate can often dive in when you miss a tackle. When a cut shot is flying at your head it is you and you alone that can make the play.
Similarly, when a great delivery is bowled, a wicket ball, there is only one player that can protect the stumps. The Australian cricket team seems preoccupied with appearances, the look and feel that typified the champion teams we remember so fondly.
I hope they soon realise those teams were full of blokes only there because they were the brilliant at cricket.
lambic peach
Guest
This is the most spot on piece about the current Australian Cricket team I have read, for maybe 18 months. Well the proof is in the pudding, and we were still watching adds with Doug when he played one match! Talk about hubris. Any danger of a net session boys? And the add about scoring 3 and 12 with pup and watto actually became a parody of the team. Well done here, and i look forward to your series wrap dude the "peach"
Mark Young
Roar Guru
Knox!!!
Mark Young
Roar Guru
I just read that Malcolm Know article.... pretty damning stuff but hopefully we will learn from it. Clarke not even watching England in South Africa, I mean what the hell!
Mark Young
Roar Guru
Hi Ophuph, thanks for writing such a considered comment. Can you see a Catch-22 arising, where the Cricket Australia sets up an extensive T20 competition in order to offer more full time places for young sportsmen, which ironically is in a form of the game which (so far) seems to reduce their ability to play high quality test cricket? I remember reading about Tim Duncan (who had a great career playing for the San Anontio Spurs and probably made enough money to buy his native US Virgin Island) and thinking, ten years ago, he would have taken 250 wickets for the Windies. And of course what about Samoa! there are currently 30 Samoans playing NFL and another 100 in the College system. If they had those men playing Rugby imagine how much better their team would be. These young men have pretty short careers at the top level and it is only natural they will look for the code which rewards them financially the most. Ironically, the number of imports taking places in the best Premier League teams in England has probably lead to more of their talented youngsters finding their way onto the cricket field to smash up silly! As for John Buchanan, I have always thought he wasn't as great as he liked to make out, and nowhere near as rubbish as Shane Warne reckons! What about you?
Mark Young
Roar Guru
Hi Viscount and Stellenbosched I like what you are saying, baggy greens and mental disintegration have to be secondary to your skills in cricket. You can't use it to get around being poorer at the game then they are. And as you pointed out Stellenbosched, it is easier to get to the stop then to stay there for a while. Motivation wise, the other teams will always be hungrier then you are since you have already achieved and then there is the natural tendency not to monkey with a winning team. You need to be made of pretty stern stuff to drop players who have done the job in the past, and that is partly what caught up with the Springboks (in my opinion), these guys had won the world cup, making them very hard to drop. I have always admired the total ruthlessness with which the All Blacks treat their stars, basically saying while they are on top of their game. "You are doing a great job right now, but soon you won't, so we are getting someone else" As for Warne's carry on, I think that the umpires are big enough to look past that bluster and carry on and judge decisions on their merits. Don't forget, every one of Shane Warne's 700 odd wickets were shown in slow motion a few times immediately after they occurred, if they weren't fair dinkum edges or they weren't really LBW we would soon have heard about it. I also think that most batsmen at that level can keep their heads as well. These guys have been playing their sports for years at a very high level, Shane Warne sulking wouldn't cause them to lose their heads. Think about it, if a ten year old kid told you to F off, you would be shocked at first, but wouldn't leave much sleep over it, you certainly wouldn't fret.
Stellenbosched
Guest
I feel that you can have Waugh's 'kidology' if it is backed up by top performance on the field. It amazes me how often teams build a winning culture by sticking to the basics month after month. And what happens when they reach the top? They throw all that good stuff out the window. The idea sets in that they are now above all the hum-drum practicing. A clue to when a team has reached this self-destruct point is when either the captain or the coach talks about taking the game 'to the next level'. The Springboks said this after the great 2009 season. So while they were busy planning the next level of performance (i.e. forgetting what got them to the top in the first place) the All Blacks and Wallabies were analyzing what went wrong and fixing it. As a last thought, would you regard excessive appealing as a type of sledging in as far as it puts pressure on the umpires? Is it possible that many of Warne's wickets were as a result of either an appeal or a groan after every second ball?
Fisher Price
Guest
But I suspect Mitchell the Mouth is encouraged by Nielsen, Ponting et al.
Fisher Price
Guest
Quite.
Fisher Price
Guest
Yes, Test players should play more/all Shield games.
Param
Guest
Definitely mark, the scg test against India was 3 years back in 08. Although that was more due to umpiring errors than sledging. Agreed with the fact that "sledging follows runs /wickets" and not the other way around. However, I have a theory that aleem dar was extremely reluctant to give ponting out lbw when he left a ball (which would have clipped the bails), due to his argumens earlier. I mean, no one wants to get involved into something as rude as what happened on day 2 at mcg, least of all the umpires. Also, although this is a new discussion altogether (and perhaps u could write about it?), umpires will always keep mr. Bucknor in mind while making decisions against sachin /dravid etc. Umpires tend to favor top ranking nations and that will never change.
Ophuph Hucksake
Guest
The urging for returning to drills and honing the basic skills is welcome - prolonged separation from iPhones, Twitter accounts and underwear modelling shoots can only be good for some of these twerps. A few of the replies however are urging a reversion to the 'old school' but don't forget that England also lean heavily on their own squadron of analysts, physios, psychologists etc. backing up the players. Perhaps where they improve on Australia is that these methods are not allowed to replace basic nous and leadership (as embodied in the captain and coach), but insted are there to enhance these qualitiesm, as well as adding to the background knowledge required to improve skills and target opponents. John Buchanan really ramped up the New Age management philosophies and technical analysis for the national set-up, and Tim Nielsen was a protege of his. I wonder if, now that legends like Waugh, Warne, McGrath, Langer, Hayden et. al have followed Buchanan out the door, Nielsen is wondering whether it was these playesr and the qualities and skills they brought to the team that led to their amazing success while Buchanan was coach, not Buck's devotion to 'process' and 'execution of skill sets'? A recent article by the ever-excellent Malcolm Knox in The Guardian suggests this is unlikely. It depicted a dynasty choking on the exhaust gases of its arrogance and insularity, an attitude belonging to administrators, coaches and players alike. One can see this decline mirrored in the attitudes of the TCCB during the 1980s and can only hope that it doesn't take 15 years or so in Australia to turn things around Another thread to 'Oz cricket in crisis' has an echo in the deterioraion of the game in the West Indies since their empire crumbled at the start of the 1990s. Back then I recall commentators voicing deep concern about sports like basketball stealing the Caribbean's best young talent, partly because of the greater opportunities to make money in that sport by playing in the USA. Lo and behold, Australia's bout of navel-gazing - with English journalists gleefully sticking in the boot - has also noted the ability of rugby and AFL to lure talented teenagers away from cricketing careers, with their promise of an easier path to the eilte. To me, this final point represents the greatest threat to any sustained recovery by Australian to another plateau of long-term dominance (as opposed to the occasional 'good team' that sticks together for 1-2 years before its constituent parts retire or are injured). With a shallower pool of new talent, future teams will lack depth, while the current mediocrities linger (whether they be players, coaches or administrators). Sadly, Test cricket is its own worst enemy in an era of instant gratification, and a sense of entitlement to fame and wealth - becoming the best at the long game takes years of dedication and pain, and at the end of the day there are relatively few international cricketers, compared to other sports stars. Interesting times ....
Viscount Crouchback
Guest
Excellent piece. I've been arguing along similar lines for some time now. One might add that a green piece of cloth doesn't give the wearer superhuman powers either; and nor does one win at cricket because of some uniquely Australian "have-a-go" attitude. The delicious irony of all this is that Steve Waugh's kidology - the baggy green myth, the mental disintegration nonsense, etc - no longer fools Australia's opponents but does seem to fool the Australian players themselves. They actually seem to believe that a bit of swearing and false bravado will win them cricket matches. In fact, Aussie cricketers are starting to remind me of English soccer players - utterly convinced of their own innate superiority, utterly convinced that Johnny Foreigner "doesn't like it up him", and then utterly baffled when they crash and burn yet again.
Mark Young
Roar Guru
Gday Mick, thanks for your feedback mate, I really appreciate it and enjoyed reading your well though out response. “all of us as a bowling group weren’t able to consistently execute to build the pressure that was needed” Sigh - translated as "we didn't bowl well enough to win the game" I remember as a 14 year old watching the Australian team with Simo as coach doing fielding drills to prepare for a ODI against the Windies. They were so sharp, so quick, so methodical. Now they aren't even running between the wickets properly. Oh for another Alan Border right now to captain us for the next ninety of so tests.
Rhys
Guest
Good article Mark. 'Ricky' does carry on like the schoolyard bully, and I suspect not just with opposition teams. Analytically and strategically, his one dimensional, narrow minded approach to captaincy befits someone of such juvenile standing as the schoolyard bully, so in that respect he'll never see the flaws in his approach. Waugh and Border could inspire 'sledging' with the best of them, but neither saw it as a substitute for a solid game plan, and purity of application to the technical aspects of the game.
Mark Young
Roar Guru
Hi Param. I have always thought the opposite in regards to mouthing off at the umpire. I would expect that Aleem Dar would actually be less likely to favour the Australians after Ricky's outburst at him. But I believe in the "suck up to the man with the whistle" theory as opposed to trying to intimidate him. As for Ricky and McGrath, how many runs or wickets do you think the verballing got them? Surely if they were meek and mild they would still be world class. I have always believed that people tend to lean on Sledging as an excuse when they are beaten by superior skills. Easier to accuse the other guy of being mean then accept you aren't as good as him. Also, If it is really helpful, then the most foul mouthed and aggressive players from Sheffield Shield and grade cricket would be straight into the national team at the expense of the more quiet players. Adam Gilchrist would never have played a test with the more mouthy Darren Berry able to get more wickets taken. But you have indeed picked out an occasion where verballing turned a game and I firmly believe it won us the Sydney Test against India two years ago (or was it three?) Still, it will always be less important to the application of the superior cricketing skills to the situation, which is what the national team seemed to believe after the 3rd test.
Mark Young
Roar Guru
Thanks Shaken! You are very kind. I hope that Mitchell has good hard think about what happened in Melbourne before he goes silly at the mouth again. And Jeremy you are spot on, all the sledging in the world wouldn't hurt as much as the humiliation at the MCG.
Mick Gold Coast QLD
Roar Guru
Well written, Mark Young. Over these past couple of weeks I've read Vinay's marvellous stuff, and his thoughtful analysis, without comment while I work out what I think about this lot. Your piece, Vinay's and the opinion by Gideon Haigh (linked above) - all opinion from people with greater knowledge of cricket than me - have been instructive. You say "The uncomfortable truth ... is that all that stuff is far less important then being good at cricket" and "those teams were full of blokes only there because they were the brilliant at cricket" - I agree the problem is as fundamental as that. On sledging - The egos and talent I saw on display (during my 20s) from DK Lillee, Viv Richards, Botham and Imran Khan had no need for the made up back slapping, inarticulate low grade swearing and just plain crass behaviour now on show. They left the crafty words to the clever bloke behind the stumps and his mates, mostly. I don't have a problem with clever stuff coming from slips or silly mid off - if you cannot cop some artful lip at that level you shouldn't be there (that is, if you actually hear it through your shield of determined focus) - but the current lot are too stupid to know of sledging. Watson lost me a while back with his puerile triumphalism to Gayle. The man is about 30 years old - that incident demonstrated to me that, without doubt, he is a child-like fool. His batting record on Cricinfo tells me he isn't much of a bat either at elite level. His mind is on the wrong things. Back to the central problem. Haigh says the administrators - Sutherland, Hilditch et al - spoke of "rebuilding" and "in transition" a couple of years back, then jumped on a plane to spend two years talking to people elsewhere in the world about money. The post-audit of cricket results shows they failed. Clearly they failed. When will they be brought to account, sacked? Their minds, too, have been on the wrong things. Cricket was in crisis once before. They brought in Bob Simpson and he arrived with a bat and a ball and took the new green blokes out on the paddock to perfect their fielding. That direct focus on the task at hand had long lasting benefit. "Skill sets" hadn't been invented then. I see McGrath has been approached as a "bowling coach" because the current bloke is retiring. Bowling coach? What happened to the discipline of hours alone in the nets bowling at a single stump, working it out for yourself? The local cricket club here has an old fella named Loxton who could wander in and give a tip or two, with more prescience than any Arts (Human Movement & Interpretative Dance) graduate's laptop modelling. If they need a bowling coach then I say the whole team-group-logistics-support-infrastructure-committeemanagementship-leadergroupship mindset relies too much on winning a corporate management award than on carefully manufacturing and successfully presenting their core business. In Haigh's piece I read: "When Shane Watson bowled poorly in Brisbane, for example, he explained that it was because "all of us as a bowling group weren't able to consistently execute to build the pressure that was needed"." This, I say, is meaningless drivel spoken by a fool, that has little to do with playing cricket well. I imagine he was dutifully wearing the sponsor's cap on his head as he spoke to the cameras, though. "Do anything you like," was Ian Chappell's famous advice when Allan Border became Australian captain in the mid-1980s. "Just don't lose to the Poms." Is that so difficult to understand?
Param
Guest
However, you can always anger the batsman by making a personal remark so that he gets out soon since an amateur batsman will always want to hit you for a 4 or a 6 and reply back. Similarly the way ponting sledged aleem dar , could have put fears in the mind of any umpire to make the marginal calls in the favour of Aussie team? I always thought ponting and mcgrath always used to get lbw decisions in their favours due to excessive and aggressive appealing in mcgraths case ( some of the balls would comfortably clear the stumps and the ch9 commentators would say something like " fair enough , that looked plumb") and pontings heavy scoring ( between 2000-2006).so it may help you to get a crucial breakthrough every now and then. I have very few doubts KP lost his wicket at MCG due to rickys arguments with him before.
Vinay Verma
Roar Guru
Sorry,Fisher,this is where we diverge. I have maintained the shield is not the finishing school it was in the nineties. Without the regular test players playing it has been limited in furthering the development of the Highes,Johnsons.smiths etc. The Shield should have a window Oct to Nov where it is compulsory for everyone to play...otherwise dont select them.
shaken
Roar Rookie
A brilliant piece Mark, you are absolutely spot on. Mitchell Johnson should a lot more time practising how to bowl and how to play a forward defensive shot, and a lot less time sledging. After all his verballing in Perth, he must be a picture of embarrassment after Melbourne.