Has the Aussie swagger made a timely return? It seems it had gone into Rip Van Winkle mode once the old guard hung up their boots.
Remember them? Steve Waugh, Mark Waugh, Glenn McGrath, Ian Healy, Shane Warne, Merv Hughes among them – the founding members of the sledge tactic?
Steve Waugh’s high-brow term for it was “mental disintegration”.
Opposition such as India and South Africa probably said ‘thanks for leaving’ when these legends retired, for with them went the sledge.
Australia’s rivals often tried to emulate the sledge, but realised the Aussies had the blueprint and had developed it into an art form.
It wouldn’t come easy to Australia’s rivals.
The Australians’ sledging tactics weren’t even planned in team talks – these verbals would just spew from Aussie lips without thinking.
For the opposition when it came to sledging, it was a case of: “We’ll try but the Aussies have the patent.”
I recall Daryll Cullinan being called a “bunny” by nemesis Warne on several occasions and Justin Ontong, in his Test debut in Sydney, being called “Sonny Boy” (reference to Percy Sonn, who altered the team sheet before the Test and left out Jacques Rudolph).
I don’t think Ontong played another Test after that, and Cullinan definitely suffered under the ‘mental disintegration’ scenario.
Ian Healy’s comment to Arjuna Ranatunga was probably no different to that of Michael Clarke’s in the first Test in terms of its impact.
Healy’s alleged comment to Ranatunga during a Sydney one-dayer was picked up by Channel Nine mics: “You don’t get a runner for being an overweight, unfit, fat c**t!”
Then there was the infamous McGrath-Sarwan incident in the West Indies – an unsavoury incident only because of Ramnaresh Sarwan’s comment about McGrath’s wife, but the closest we could have come to seeing blows on a cricket pitch!
In his autobiogrpahy, Steve Waugh makes mention of an incident involving Curtly Ambrose.
Ambrose stared Waugh down during a searing spell, and Waugh, who sized up the towering Ambrose, said, “What the f*ck are you looking at?” And eventually added, “Go f**k yourself.”
Richie Richardson had a hard time keeping Ambrose away from Waugh.
Then of course there was the Super Six clash against South Africa in 1999, when Herschelle Gibbs was told by S Waugh after dropping a catch, “You’ve just dropped the World Cup.”
So why were many of us scratching heads over the poor form of the Aussies?
Of course they are a team in transition. It had to take yet another heated Ashes series, with Michael ‘Pup’ Clarke ratcheting up the needle with his “We’re going to break your f***ing arm” comment for most of us to finally realise what had been missing in the Aussie armoury.
The sledge.
The image of Peter Siddle – the spearhead I like to call ‘Peter Sizzle’ – steaming in to the crease epitomises the size of the fight that has in fact been missing from the Australians’ approach in recent times.
He doesn’t have to throw a tantrum at all to upset the opposition – Siddle is pure guts, determination personified.
There is always a batsman’s wicket at stake with Siddle’s every throw of the red missile.
Throw in a bit of banter from Clarke, David Warner and co. and you have the perfect recipe to pummel the opposition into submission.
Guys like Siddle remind you it’s not so gentle out there in this game we call cricket. He is like a matador in a bullring – always going for the kill.
Warner is that type of cricketer too – with bat in hand. Warner is not the type of bloke you’d probably want to make conversation with around a dinner table, he’d probably have you grinding your teeth out of frustration in no time.
Form and class have not always been with him.
But it’s when the chips are down he can remind the opposition he’ll flat bat them into the stratosphere if he must.
He’s no Matthew Hayden but Warner can carve up an attack in next to no time.
Who else is there in the team who can be said to be aiding and abetting the likes of Clarke and Warner? Mitchell Johnson maybe?
What I have seen in this Test is what I always believed he could do. I have always maintained this bloke could be more dangerous with ball in hand.
Now he’s just got to keep it up.
It’s not about perfectly coiffured hair and flashing the odd toothpaste smile Mr Johnson – it’s a war out there.
Mitch has finally shown us his brutal side, flashes of the Australia of old.
Sledging gets too charged up sometimes on a cricket field – but we love watching it as long as it’s within the rules.
Keep your foot on the opposition’s throat when you can Australia – it’s an Ashes series for crying out loud.
But don’t let Rip Van Winkle steal your thunder down the line, otherwise I’m afraid we’ll see the worst of the mighty Aussies again!
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