Nowhere in world cricket is Australia still considered the most formidable team around. Nowhere, that is, except in the formalities ahead of the 2011 World Cup on the subcontinent.
There were shades of the last days of the British empire about Australian captain Ricky Ponting’s role at the tournament opening ceremony in Dhaka, as leader of a nation that has won each of the past three events.
At a captains’ press conference Ponting sat in front of the other 13 skippers, and gave a brief opening address.
Later in the Sher-e-Bangla stadium it was Ponting who led the procession of captains in cycle rickshaws, basking in the position granted to him by those previous three victories.
This was at once a recognition of Ponting’s seniority – none of the other captains have anything like his level of experience – and an observance of Australia’s place as defending champions.
But none of the other captains would have felt intimidated in Ponting’s presence, as they might have been at receptions in 2003 or 2007.
Likewise Ponting was no longer an absolute ruler but a figurehead, unsure of whether he is about to become the cricketing equivalent of Louis Mountbatten, viceroy of India when the Raj ended in 1947, or Chris Patten, the governor of Hong Kong when it was handed back to China in 1997.
Like those entrusted with controlling British outposts as the empire shrunk in the years after the second World War, Ponting’s power has been eroded both by weakness within and political and economic developments without.
Of course Ponting has no intention of going quietly, and would like to add a fourth consecutive Cup to his trophy cabinet after his legacy as a Test captain was sullied by a heavy Ashes defeat during the home summer.
The rest of the world, while taking plenty of education from Australia’s reign, cannot forget the trauma inflicted by it.
They will be equally keen for Ponting to exit as quietly and peacefully from the Cup as Mountbatten and Patten did from their vice-regal posts.
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