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Adelaide was about redemption. Pakistan is about revenge

Australian captain Steve Smith. (AAP Image/Dave Hunt)
Editor
6th December, 2016
12

Revenge is the great motivator that has driven almost every spurned protagonist since stories were first told.

I can think of no more spurned team in the last six months than the Australian cricket side.

The death of cricket as we knew it, the established order, was very much overstated by the media. Cricket was said to be in crisis. I didn’t buy it. Was our first class system really that busted? Were our batsmen and coaches really so terrible?

Losses in Sri Lanka were comprehensive, but with the team we took in, not necessarily unexpected.

Losing to a good South African side showed something was wrong. But not enough was wrong that it would require a decade of hard slogging and Allan Border-types to resurrect.

No, Steve Smith and his men had more to them than that. They showed that in Adelaide, coming out and comprehensively whipping the same South African side that had done it to them at Hobart a week earlier.

It was good. It showed that not all was wrong and that losing can be arrested with good performance from players you know are capable of it.

That was redemption.

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Now it’s Pakistan’s turn. Australia will be angry, and they have every right to be. Fire in the eyes and revenge as your carrot should prove very powerful indeed.

Powerful enough to inspire them to a 3-0 victory?

I should definitely think so.

Australian batsman David Warner

Because their revenge would be incomplete if their performance is lacking in any facet. A win raises the expectation in the public’s eye. Where are all the comments about cricket in crisis now?

But within the team, the comments from all the big pundits will still burn. There will be that innate desire which seems to drive every premiership-winning footy team and every Ashes-winning cricket side – “we proved them all wrong.”

Pakistan didn’t do anything to deserve what Australia will be hoping to exact on them. They just happen to be the ones touring Australia at what is a difficult time for the national side.

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The ultimate goal is the kind of fairytale trajectory which saw the Wallabies reach the World Cup final last year. Number 1 in the Test cricket rankings isn’t actually that far away. As of 29 November, Australia are equal second with England, ten points behind India.

Pakistan presents a golden opportunity to start the journey back to the top of the pile.

The chance to start a move to the top, to show the media that cricket’s not dead, that the national pastime is something we’re still the best at on the international stage. Those are powerful motivations.

That’s what Steve Smith and his crew will be channelling when they walk out in Brisbane under lights.

Take back the number one spot. Take their revenge for the narratives that have been spun about them.

It’s theirs for the taking.

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