Cricket lovers of the world rejoice – Australia is finally out of the Twenty20 Cricket World Cup! And it must have been sweet sweet revenge for Sri Lanka too! I love the term used by the BBC:
“dumped”
Yes, the Aussies were kicked out of the Cup in the first round, after their second consecutive defeat. The Windies had previously kicked the crap out of them by 7 wickets.
SL was ousted by Australia in the 2007 edition of the T20 World Cup. Australia had previously destroyed SL in the finals of 2007 50-over World Cup finals. In the 2003 World Cup semis, Australia had again devastated the Sri Lankans by almost 100 runs. It must, then, have felt almost as good as 1996 ODI World Cup, when Sri Lanka had won its first Cup by defeating the Aussies.
In the wake of the 1996 World Cup, when the Australia team was overhauled with the retirement of Mark Taylor, Australia has dominated all forms of cricket. After winning 3 consecutive cups and dozens of other cups and trophies, it seems no one else can keep the Australians off the first rank for too long. Last year, an article in Sportingo decried this constant sense of superiority and domination exhibited by Australian cricket:
Cricket lovers have greeted the prospect of the end of Australian domination with mixed feelings. Some see the exit of the Australians as an absolute and others believe they might still stick around in the top three for a bit, even without their retired stars.
The article, however, was somewhat premature as Australia regained #1 soon after. South Africa is again on top in ODIs, but Australia remains the top test team.
I have especially disliked Ponting’s haughty attitude and his lack of respect for his competitors. In a 2007 article, Ponting claimed:
I can see us being a very dominant team
Only last year, Ponting behaved less than a gentlemen during the series with India. Roebuck, the former Somerset captain now of Sydney called for his resignation claiming:
“If Cricket Australia cares a fig for the tattered reputation of our national team in our national sport, it will not for a moment longer tolerate the sort of arrogant and abrasive conduct seen from the captain and his senior players over the past few days”
It was absolutely revolting the extent to which Ponting and his team mates would be willing to stoop to beat or match records. It is just unacceptable for a gentlemanly sport such as Cricket for any team to lie to achieve mere milestones. It is amazing that no action was taken by the ICC against Ponting and his men for their actions in the second test against India last year.
It is, thus, time for this Australia domination to end once and for all. It is unhealthy for the sport for one team to tower over every other team every single time the way Australia has for the past 10 years. It has not allowed any other team to win a World Cup in the past ten years. It is almost demoralizing for other teams to face defeat at the hands of the World Champion every single time. Moreover, Australia does not play fair – it uses rules and technicalities to win whenever possible.
Of course, Cricket is a competitive sport and teams strive to become and remain the best. If Australia keeps winning, then other teams need to up their game to the extent that they can challenge the Aussies. It seems that we might be at the that stage when the Australia domination might finally be coming to a close.
West Indies controlled the shorter version of the game through the 70s and most of the 80s, but have been out of the running since then. Australia probably won’t stay out of the race for too long, what with its strong domestic scene and long list of potential stars, but it definitely is time for some other team to take over the reigns of the game.
