Great teams don’t happen overnight. The Australia cricket sides of the 1990s-early 200s under Steve Waugh and Ricky Ponting is evidence of it. The same applies to the all-conquering South Africa under Graeme Smith.
The current band of Australian cricketers are not yet deserving of it – the label of greatness cannot be affixed to them.
This is despite what Michael Clarke and David Warner had alluded in the lead up to the first Test at Centurion – theirs was the best bowling attack in world cricket.
Of course, most fans, players and pundits alike knew the mind games had begun when Australia arrived in South Africa.
Those statements typified the Australian way of breaking down the opposition’s belief system by saying things about their own, which most know are not necessarily true or, in the scheme of things, a valid assessment.
South Africa’s stirring victory in Port Elizabeth in the second Test puts Australia’s Ashes series whitewash in perspective. As one fan shouted from the stands when Morne Morkel was letting it rear off a length and giving the Aussie batsmen some bruising of their own in Port Elizabeth: “Hey mate.. this isn’t England.”
England had gone soft by the time the Ashes came around. Not to take anything away from Australia, the 5-0 whitewash was quite an achievement, but we must admit England were no great shakes at all.
If anyone thought Michael Clarke could explain why his bowlers did not get the swing, or reverse swing and lift South Africa’s bowlers extracted from an at times flattish pitch at St George’s Park, they might not have got the answers they thought they would get.
Ever practical and humble when staring defeat in the face on the third evening at St George’s Park, Clarke’s reply to the question from Mark Nicholas: “Well you’ve got to give the SA bowlers credit. They bowled very well on this pitch, we did not.”
The question is will Australia ever achieve the greatness and swagger they once had in world cricket, despite their obliteration of England in the Ashes and South Africa in the first Test?
Greatness will not be achieved from a 5-0 thrashing of an arch-nemesis whose game itself is based on staunch conservatism, that is not the Kevin Pietersen way of going about the business.
I believe, and with all due respect to Jonathan Trott and Graeme Swann, England’s a team which has gone soft. So many of us may have been gushing too quickly over recent Aussie feats.
What we all should remember is the teams of the Waugh and Ponting eras and the Proteas’ ascendancy up the Test ladder was built on many seasons of toil, of nailing down the right winning formulae and the choice of the right players.
Which brings me to the point of the Australian team I was watching on the third day of the second Test at St George’s Park.
The mind still boggles as to why the likes of Ryan Harris and Mitch Johnson did not extract bounce and swing like some of the Proteas bowlers did.
Harris looked a pale shadow, and Mitchell seemed ineffective compared to his Centurion exploits and unlikely to repeat those heroics. In fact, he looked ordinary.
The bowling unit did not come to the party (compared to the South Africans), except for Nathan Lyon in the first innings.
I still can’t fathom why the bowling attack went from outstanding to half-decent in the matter of one Test!
The Australians also folded quite spectacularly late on the second and quickly on the third before capitulating against the brilliance of Dale Steyn’s reverse swing on the fourth day for the South Africans to level at 1-1 with one Test to go.
Serious questions have to be asked of Australia’s application and patience at the crease. This Australian side has been punted as world beaters far too soon.
There is a very long way to go, and I feel before the Aussies even think they can reach the dizzy heights of their halcyon days, there are going to be many problems in the camp.
What happened to Australia between the first and second Tests in South Africa – going from excellent to almost-woeful – must be probed. Was there in fact too much celebration and hype after having won but one of the three Tests in Centurion in the week building up to the Port Elizabeth Test?
It’s time John Inverarity re-looked selection policy for Australia. This is certainly not the way to do it if the Aussies want to reach the pinnacle of world cricket again.
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