Australia have won just five of their past 25 ODIs – this stat is well known.
What is far less publicised is that, quite ridiculously, 22 of those matches have been against England and India, by far the two best sides in this format.
The other three matches were against South Africa, the third best best side in this format.
Had Australia instead played 22 of those 25 matches against Sri Lanka and the West Indies they would likely have a good recent record.
In that hypothetical case there may be a false sense that Australia were in very good shape. In this same way, there has been some exaggerated pessimism about Australia’s current position in ODIs due to people ignoring their ludicrous fixture over the past 21 months.
Since the 2017 Champions Trophy was completed, these are the number of different opponents teams have faced in ODIs: India (ten opponents), West Indies (ten), Pakistan (eight), Sri Lanka (eight), England (six), New Zealand (six), South Africa (six), and Australia? Just three.
Australia have run into Virat Kohli more than they would have liked ahead of this year’s ICC Cricket World Cup. (Matt King/Getty Images)
So in the last 21 months while every other nation has been playing against a wide range of opponents – from elite to poor – Australia have played almost every single match against the two juggernauts of one-day cricket.
This situation is akin to a Test opener who is trying to find some form being forced to play 15 Tests in a row against South Africa’s dominant pace attack.
There is no respite, little chance to turn things around. What an opener in such a situation needs is to try to weather a tough Test series against SA and then regain form and momentum by churning out runs against a weaker opponent on home decks.
Then when they face an elite opponent again they at least are in a better shape mentally and technically to handle that challenge.
Australia’s ODI team have not had such a breather, such an opportunity to regroup and fine-tune their skills and strategies against an ordinary opponent.
Instead they’ve faced the world’s two most commanding teams again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again.
They’ve also had to endure this never-ending pounding while missing their two best batsmen, David Warner and Steve Smith, and their best bowler Mitchell Starc in more than half of those matches.
There will be plenty of Roarers who will not have read this far into my article and will already be making comments below about how what I’ve written is a weak excuse for an inept team.
They would be spot on if I was suggesting that Australia’s insane fixture is the sole reason they’ve floundered.
But I am not.
I have written many articles detailing how the new-look Australian batting line-up has failed to step up in the absence of Smith and Warner.
Numerous times I’ve also delved into the manner in which Australia’s selection errors and antiquated batting and bowling strategies have held them back.
There are many reasons Australia have had such a horrendous record in ODIs over the past two years. But these reasons have been discussed ad nauseum, whereas their crazy fixture has been ignored by comparison.
Sometimes teams in any sport just need a run of easy matches to regain their mojo.
The prime example is Australia’s recent Test series against Sri Lanka. They entered that contest at a low ebb after being smashed by India. Their batting line-up was in tatters.
Two Tests and an avalanche of centuries later and Australia’s Test team had regained a spring in its step.
Are they world beaters again as a result? No, of course not. But it was a healthy experience.
Australia will have no such cosy ODI series in which to regain their confidence before the World Cup.
If they manage to turn things around and perform well in that tournament they will have done it the hard way. The really bloody hard way.
JamesH
Roar Guru
It's a bit of a catch 22 though. If we played NZ more we could reignite the rivalry and build interest, but CA won't play them more because the interest apparently isn't there.
Noah Barling
Roar Pro
One would think the ICC would step in as they are all about the "Expansion of the Game" which is only if it involved T20 or India.
Chris Kettlewell
Roar Guru
Exactly, especially when the Bangladesh series wasn't going to be instead of a more lucrative series, it was going to be like that other one they did a number of years back taking cricket to the top-end during the winter, playing in places like Cairns and Darwin or something like that. It's a win-win, gives the Aussies another couple of tests against a team we would expect to be able to beat at home, allows people to see live test cricket who rarely get the opportunity. The cancelling of a test tour against a genuine test nation because it's not considered "commercially viable" is a terrible rabbit hole to start down!
Just Nuisance
Roar Rookie
So true JamesH, but we all know that NZ don't bring in the big bucks. Ironically exactly the same argument can be extended as to why The All Black rugby team don't play Fiji and Samoa more frequently. It's a money thing.
Just Nuisance
Roar Rookie
I would not discount the massive disruptive effect that the ball tampering debacle had on the entire Australian team. Throw in a new coach and then add to the mix the scheduling the article refers to and It becomes clear that Australia were going to struggle. There does however seem to be a settling down and the importance of the momentum gained from both the Sri Lanka series as well as this Indian tour is huge.
Noah Barling
Roar Pro
Surely CA has enough money to at least let the smaller teams play a bigger nation like Australia. Look at the BBL, we have so many young sub-continent players who will never play an international here because its not viable
Chris Kettlewell
Roar Guru
We are 2-2 against India in this series in India. So I think we are definitely competitive. But during a period where the team is transitioning a bit, trying out new players, has other players injured or out for other reasons and such, having the chance to play some weaker teams from time to time can potentially help build some form and confidence to then take into the matches against the stronger teams.
Chris Kettlewell
Roar Guru
There was a period where they seemed to work out having at least a 3-match ODI series between Australia and NZ every year, but that only lasted a few years before being completely abandoned. CA have shown they don't care about playing all the teams, they just care about what's most "commercially viable", hence cancelling a Bangladesh tour purely because they didn't see it as "commercially viable".
Chris Kettlewell
Roar Guru
With the broadcast deal they've signed I can't see them reducing the number of games in the BBL. But they definitely need to compress it. Play a lot more double headers, including not being afraid to have games played simultaneously (since they are having some on Foxtel only, could have those games played simultaneously with one that's on FTA TV). So they can shave 2-3 weeks off even with the same number of games. It was a joke the way the BBL ended. Over the last 2 weeks it seemed to almost disappear from TV. Games that were on FTA TV were suddenly pushed out of prime-time so 7 could instead show their Your Kitchen Sucks rubbish. With the NRL, which only has a few games a week on FTA TV most of the time, they then increase the number on FTA TV in the last few weeks of the season as the whole thing ramps up to finals. The way BBL almost disappeared off FTA prime time TV over those last couple of weeks really meant it just petered out. BBL Needs to finish by the time school goes back. 6 weeks. Mid-December to Late-January. With more double headers and simultaneous games they can pull that off even without reducing games.
Chris Kettlewell
Roar Guru
Yes. I think that was a test tour though. They were going to do another top-end test tour in winter I believe.
El Loco
Roar Rookie
Absolutely we did see them a lot and absolutely it was orchestrated that way by administrators. Kerry Packer would've had a fair say in it too.
Peter Warrington
Guest
add in 77-8 over there and it was mental. plus some of the guys played two years homr and one tour away against them in WSC those who came into the team after 85 had it pretty easy, only on series before 91.
anon
Roar Pro
I don't think it's skewed at all because we're playing equals in India, England, South Africa (I don't think England is that good a team but oh well). Sri Lanka and the West Indies are not equals but cricketing minnows. Against legitimate cricketing nations we aren't competitive which is disturbing.
Gurlivleen Grewal
Roar Pro
Context in stats. I agree Ronan, it doesn't help Aus at all.
Gurlivleen Grewal
Roar Pro
True that. It should be like Ind-Srl and it wouldn't be lopsided like that either.
Timmuh
Roar Guru
There were also only six Test nations at the start of the 1980s, Sri Lanka became the 7th in the early 80s. South Africa weren't readmitted until the early 1990s. With an ODI tri-series and separate "ODI status" not really a thing, 40% of potential opposition played here each summer. And it didn't take many tours to cover all opponents in the rest of the year. There are now 11 potential opponents in Tests, two of which are very new; and a couple more in ODIs. Of course frequency per opponent should be higher then.
JamesH
Roar Guru
It staggers me that we don’t play more cricket against NZ in all formats. They’re a decent side, they’re traditional rivals and they’re right next door FFS!
Noah Barling
Roar Pro
Disgusting from CA! How on earth have we not played New Zealand when they are the closest team to us? We should be playing them a lot more! Disgusting money grab from CA, so much for them helping smaller nations, bailing on Bangladesh as well!
DaveJ
Roar Rookie
But didn’t the Windies come here many or most years for the triangular ODI series?
DaveJ
Roar Rookie
Not true - see the numbers of matches India has played against Bangladesh, Zimbabwe, India and even Afghanistan.