Australians have the greatest sporting hunger and drive the world over. I deliberately aim not to hide the lack of modesty, because I’m an Aussie.
We play sport, whether it’s in the backyard, the street, a local oval or the MCG, to win.
Australian sportspeople are brought up by the mantra that we must win.
And it’s good to have that attitude back.
When Michael Clarke told Jimmy Anderson to be ready for a broken arm thanks to one of Mitchell Johnson’s brutal offerings, the transformation was complete.
In modern time cricket pylons, from 1989-2005, we came to know winning as just part and parcel of, well, life.
I know as a child, you played sport for enjoyment yes, but an almost overriding feeling was that of winning.
We just have to win. Winning is good. So you do it all the time. It is drummed into everyone young Australian early on.
But when Clarke’s expletive ridden sharp tongue was picked up by a stump microphone, this mentality was back.
The hard, fierce but fair edge was back, if Johnson’s bouncer barrage and Shane Watson’s constant cackling and sledging from first slip wasn’t a big enough hint.
It is good to have this edge back, because for a while I felt the Australian public, while still loving their cricket, almost accepted the slow decline were seeing after the high turnover of quality players.
I first noticed this decline in our nation’s moral code post the London Olympics.
Australia had such a dismal showing, we had a ticker take parade for a couple of gold medals in rowing.
Yes, rowing. This is the same country that at the start of the 2000s had the sporting world at its finger tips.
An all-conquering cricket team, the best swimmers in the world, two gun tennis champions in Pat Rafter and Lleyton Hewitt, yet 11 or 12 years later, we celebrated two medals in a “sport” that is lucky to be in the same league as others.
We, as a nation, were accepting mediocrity.
Same goes for the last Ashes series.
The 3-0 score line to England by most Australian scribes as a “positive” for Australia, as the series was a lot closer than it seemed.
That may be so, but does it say that when in twenty years’ time, children will look at the UK leg of the Ashes series and say, “gee that was a close, hard fought series especially if rain hadn’t come at Old Trafford”?
The long and the short answer is a defiant no.
We, as a nation, are born winners. Those hard edged, fierce and supremely talented people that love being underdogs, thrive on occasions and never take a backwards step.
Now in pubs, clubs, beaches, schools, you name it, the Ashes is on everyone’s lips, once more, baying for more English blood.
It’s brilliant, having the old mentality back. Winning, after all, is much better than losing. It’s just the Australian way
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