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Captains are the key to any sporting success – Michael Clarke and Lucas Neill, in particular. The baggy greens are on the brink of chalking up their second Test win in 14 months, with Clarke playing positive cricket. And it’s rubbing off on the team.
But the Socceroos should have been beaten last night by lowly Thailand in a World Cup qualifier, instead of winning 2-1, simply because Neill didn’t spark his side.
That’s not the way Holger Osieck coaches. It looked as though that disaster Pim Verbeek was back.
Captaincy is the key, alright.
I’ll put my cards on the table straight away. I never rated Clarke captaincy material, nor deserving the second most important job in the country after the Prime Minister.
But Clarke won the ODI series 3-2 over Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka. No mean feat. And he’s just five wickets away from a 1-nil lead in the three-Test series.
Sri Lanka’s still 259 runs in arrears, and no chance of saving the Test unless it rains for two days.
A win at Galle on a dynamite pitch will do wonders for both Clarke and his troops.
Like the vast majority, I’m only watching the Test on television. But it’s abundantly clear that Clarke has the side more focused in the field than his predecessor Ricky Ponting.
Maybe it’s Clarke to lasso the wild one Mitchell Johnson and make him a consistent cricketer, instead of a liability. Ponting couldn’t do it.
And Clarke has certainly made Nathan Lyon and Trent Copeland feel at home from the get-go. Both debutants have been instrumental in the Australians dominating this first Test.
It’s important to return to the winner’s list.
Australia won the third Ashes Test at the WACA mid-December last year. But the previous Australian win was mid-July 2010 at Lords against Pakistan.
Just two wins in 10 Tests is the reason why the Australians have dropped to fifth in the world Test rankings, and deservedly so.
If Clarke can turn his batting lineup into focus, instead of playing far too many suicide shots, the side will be competitive again, and move up the ladder as an automatic progression.
But to be fair to Clarke, he can’t fix all the woes at once. Sufficient to say, he has done better than I thought possible and deserves more public support.
Lucas Neill lost a lot of public support last night.
A good crowd of 25,845 turned up at Suncorp to be greeted by an abysmal display by the Socceroos against an opponent rated 25/1 by most betting agencies. Rare odds in a two-horse race.
And the Socceroo stats – 67% possession, 65% in the opposition half, with shots at goal, Socceroos 15 for two goals, Thailand four for one.
Even worse, the Socceroos were in the Thai penalty box 50 times, the Thai’s just seven times in reverse.
Enough for 10 goals and counting. Just two?
But the Thai’s led 1-nil until the 58th minute and only fell behind in the 86th – having dodged a barrage of bullets.
Think about it, the Socceroos are ranked 22nd in the world. Heaven help the 178 ranked behind them.
As to be expected from a world-class goal-keeper, Mark Schwarzer was brutally honest.
“That performance feels like a loss. That’s the worst we have played for a very long time”.
Amen to that.
Neill added: “It showed if you don’t approach the game right you find yourself down against any team. They made it very hard for us”.
That quote should read: “We made it very hard for ourselves”.
Osieck gave up his players: “Everyone expected an easy win, they didn’t play the football in the first half I would like to see.
“In the second half we did a lot more, they knew what they had to do.
“Maybe it was a good wake-up call”.
Maybe?
Next up, Saudi Arabia away on early Wednesday morning our time, a far better side, with 40 degree heat, and a hostile home crowd.
If the wake-up call hasn’t registered, the Saudi’s may well declare at half-time. Unless the far more experienced Lucas Neill takes a positive leaf out of Michael Clarke’s book.