The era of awful Australian cricket

It has been a disappointing last year for players and fans of the Australian cricket team (Getty Images)

Now coming to the current state of Australian cricket.

Well, the purpose of this article wouldn’t be solved if I keep churning out these examples and actually not come to the point.

It has been rather funny to hear Shane Warne’s allegations throughout the recently concluded Ashes series on Alastair Cook‘s captaincy, occasional defensive approach of English batsmen and about how in Stuart Broad, the world has unearthed another poster boy for NOT SO GOOD reasons.

At the onset of the Ashes, they had a controversy which they could yet regret for a long, long time to come. Mickey Arthur got the sack and in came Darren Lehmann. While the appointment of Lehmann as the new coach of Australian instilled some confidence within the Australian media and their ex-cricketers, particularly those like Shane Warne, Ricky Ponting, Tom Moody and a couple of others as well. It didn’t quite dish out the necessary results, at least the ones that were expected of him.

But, as a sign of justification to the views of those ex Aussie cricketers on Clarke and his aggressive captaincy, in the first Ashes Test, Australia under ‘Pup’ Michael Clarke made England sweat for every run and in Ashton Agar came a surprise batting star, who went on to show some basics to the top-order batsmen. The resurgence of Australia went to the extent that, they had a chance to trounce England and maybe stake a claim for an Ashes backlash for the loss at home a couple of years ago.

Not boasting about myself, but it did bemuse me that a lot of cricket experts and the bigger voices of the game backed Australia to defeat England for the urn after the first Test. But, thanks to my strong instincts, I felt Australia had let England off the hook after having them on the mat for the best part of five days. And that has only been justified in the last 20 days of the Ashes, spread over four Tests.

I have no problem with Australia playing the way they have been and losing so badly on more than just a consistent basis, but talk about banter and the sledging that Australia was so renowned for, the grumbling manner in which they dished out criticism on England did make my blood boil.

Let’s talk about another example and a very recent one at that; ‘Punter’ during Australia’s tour to India in 2010 labelled India’s style of play as “Old-Fashioned” cricket and what happened after that is history and one to be elated about as far as Indian fans are concerned. So, as I said, Australia were always known for their mind games and the hard cricket that they played day in, day out on the cricket pitch.

But their cricketing results have deteriorated and not only that, their style of getting into the opposition’s minds has also changed drastically.

Maybe, in my next post, I’ll dish out something on what Australia could offer if they get out of this rut they have found themselves in.