Memories of a truly unique Australian summer of cricket

Twenty-five years ago a bold, controversial and highly entertaining series of cricket commenced. Playing under the banner of a cigarette sponsor for the penultimate time, the Kerry Packer-inspired-World Series cricket welcomed a fourth team.

That team was Australia A.

Visiting sides England and Zimbabwe could now look forward to taking on two Aussie teams, as if one wasn’t hard enough.

The 14-match series was spread over six weeks, and without Twenty20 to worry about it fitted in with the Ashes nicely.

While watching England take on the Aussies was a traditional treat, the real interest and novelty factor was Australia taking on Australia.

How would young up and coming batsmen such as Greg Blewett, Damien Martyn, Matthew Hayden, Justin Langer and Ricky Ponting fare against the experience of Craig McDermott and the emerging talents of Shane Warne, Damien Fleming and Glenn McGrath?

It was a marketers delight. The Australian Cricket Board allowed the concept knowing that the Australia A games couldn’t be sanctioned as official One-Day internationals. They would be classed as List A fixtures.

The cricket though was tough and uncompromising. The Australian first-team players understandably despised the concept, realising they were on a hiding to nothing.

Win the game and that’s what the selectors and the public expected from the preferred number one side. Lose, and questions would be asked of performance.

What made matters worse was the majority of crowds supported the boys in green – i.e. underdogs Australia A – as opposed to the traditional canary yellow.

The first match between the Australian teams took place at the Adelaide Oval on December 11. Australia beat the A team by just six runs. Captain Mark Taylor made his thoughts clear after the game in an honest interview.

“I didn’t enjoy the game. I don’t like playing against my own players. I don’t like it when the crowd doesn’t support us when we play at home.

I can`t blame the crowd; I don`t think they should have been made to choose whether to back Australia or the other Australian team. They [Australia A] are probably more jovial in their rooms than we are in ours, and we`re the winners. I don`t have to say anything official [to administrators]. I`d be surprised if the Australia A thing happens again.”

We didn’t have that intensity…of playing against England. The blokes were not quite there, not quite switched on.”

The thoughts of the Australian players in yellow meant this was more than likely to be a one-off, lest there be a player revolt. The fans seemed to sense that, enjoying the concept while they could.

To Australia’s credit they remained focused on the job at hand and lost just once to England en route to the finals.

The series was unique in that players like Michael Bevan, started out in the Australian team only to be demoted to the A side during the series.

He wasn’t the only one. Experienced players in Paul Reiffel, Phil Emery and Gavin Robertson did the same.

In Bevan’s case it was the best way to be dropped. Rather than going back to domestic cricket where selectors may or may not take notice of his form, he was still on national television up against the very team he’d left.

He made a century two games later against England, which knocked the Poms out of the tournament (by 0.01 in Net-run-rate!) and ensured promoters were licking their lips at the sight of the final: Australia versus Australia A.

Merv Hughes also proved he still had it. He was part of the experience-versus-youth balance in the Australian A squad. He ended up being the A team’s leading wicket taker, with 12 wickets at 16.33.

The first final was an absolute belter. Memorable moments included Glenn McGrath and Matt Hayden exchanging words after McGrath’s teapot stance got too close to Haydos’ running between the wickets, Craig McDermott breaking through Greg Blewett’s defences, Bevan hitting 73 to show why he should never have been left out of the Aussie side, Michael Slater’s 92, and Ian Healy hitting the winning runs from the final ball.

In a way it was like the cricket version of State of Origin. Mates off the field but the cricket was intense as both teams desperately wanted to win.

Australia won the second final by six-wickets to wrap up the series 2-0. They also successfully went through the tournament without losing to their mates, despite coming extremely close on two occasions.

The players from that Australian team may look back on 1994/95 with angst at how they were forced to play against their own.

It was a gimmick yes, but it was a gimmick which gave Australia’s future stars unbelievable experience on the world stage in front of packed crowds.

If the modern cricket calendar wasn’t so jammed packed, a one-off match between a probable versus possibles team would still prove viable, and would no doubt help selectors pick World Cup squads.

Alas, we’ll never see a repeat of a series like 1994/95. The experiment proved Australia could field two sides strong enough to beat England, but also divided the nation at the same time.