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The flame is extinguished. The air has been let out of the balloon. All hope is lost.
» Listen to Cam chatting on ABC Newcastle Radio with Gerry Collins (mp3)
The excitement in Australian cricket generated firstly from the Darren Lehmann appointment and secondly from the Ashton Agar/James Pattinson-led rearguard in the first Test at Trent Bridge has given way to resignation and accusation.
We can’t win. We’re hopeless. The future is bleak.
Our batting line-up is as stiff as a bowl of jelly. A bunch of pampered, privileged hacks of little talent and even less discipline. Sack them all.
Every cricket writer in the country has determined that the fish rots at the head, lining up to whack Cricket Australia, and what a target they provide. It has made for some of the best sports-writing of the year.
No doubt Cricket Australia is to blame for their disgraceful inability to plan for the future of Test cricket in this country, blinded by dollar signs in their eyes in the form of the ever-expanding Big Bash League.
It’s been well noted how gleeful the press release accompanying its launch was, mere hours after our darkest moment, the Aussie humiliation at Lord’s.
While we all wish that sporting organisations were pure of motive and put the welfare of the sport above bank balances, we live in a world where this simply isn’t the case. The AFL for instance, as put by David Schwarz, is one of many drunk on gambling revenue.
The BBL is apparently the future, the money-spinner, so every resource gets poured its way to make it bigger and more successful, including getting priority over first class and Test matches in the middle of prime cricket season.
The message from head office is clear.
Never mind that Test matches, supposedly the pinnacle of the game, and T20 are such polar opposites, they might as well be different sports.
Expecting cricketers to combine first class and T20 is like asking our elite footballers to prepare by playing professional ice-hockey, or getting horses training for the Melbourne Cup by being used exclusively for polo.
So, while Cricket Australia is certainly culpable for the failing batting standards of our first class cricketers, there is one other party even more to blame.
You.
That is, the fans of BBL. The ones who lap it up. The empty-headed masses with the attention span of goldfish.
You are the people who’ve allowed Cricket Australia to hijack the standards of Test cricket in this country. Let’s face it, the BBL wouldn’t grow if you didn’t keep attending the festivities or watching on TV.
Not for you the boring blandness of tight bowling and disciplined batting. Nothing worse than a few maiden overs in a row. Hell, you can’t even handle a couple of maiden balls.
Cricket is nothing without fireworks is it? Maybe some dancing girls. You can’t even deal with the lull that a change of overs provides. Music please. Louder! Louder!
So deluded have you become that you refuse to see the facts about your poster-child, David Warner. All you remember is the dazzling 180 runs off 159 balls he scored in a Test innings in Perth.
Twenty 4s! Five 6s! This is cricketing nirvana!
You haven’t noticed the 14 Tests since. You haven’t noticed a paltry 880 runs in 26 innings at an average of under 34. You write off a multitude of irresponsible and reckless shots as “that’s the way he plays”.
The extension of that should read “that’s the way he plays…in T20”.
Some of us actually remember a pre-T20 time when a player of untold natural talent spent two years in the wilderness being forced to change “the way he played”.
His name was Steve Waugh. If you don’t know what he did once he came back, you can look it up.
Nothing makes me sadder than seeing cricket followers I respect enjoying a game of BBL. Their tweets of excitement over an elevated ramp shot about are only matched by their tweets of despair during the next Test match batting collapse.
In many ways, they’re only getting what they deserve. Shame on them.
I wonder how many of you have been bemoaning the loose shots of Phil Hughes since his resumption at Test level? Probably the same amount applauding his 74 off 48 balls for his Adelaide franchise in December last year.
Strikers by nickname, striker by nature. They’re not called the Adelaide Patience and Leaving The Ball While Watching Closely Outside Off, are they?
Next time you’re wondering why Shaun Marsh has never come on from his century on debut in Sri Lanka, ask yourself if you were cheering his 85 of 52 balls for the Perth Scorchers when the Boxing Day Test was played last year. Get Scorched!
I’m reminded of one of my favourite sayings – if you chase two rabbits, both will escape.
Seems true to me, because we’re a basket-case at Test level, and even worse in T20.
So, are you going to blame Cricket Australia? Or turn that glare toward the mirror? Every time you watch a ball of BBL this summer, you’re doing your bit to ruin the already grim future of Australian Test cricket.
Frankly, you should be ashamed. I’d ask for a few minutes of self-reflection from you, but I daresay you’d be distracted within a few seconds, probably by an ad for the latest reality show, People Losing Weight While Getting Married To A Singing House.
For those wondering, my conscience is clear. I haven’t watched a ball of the revamped, artificial, plastic BBL.
After all, it’s just not cricket.