CricDigs Blogs

So, the inevitable has finally happened. The Australians are partying hard and celebrating their well deserved success in the world cup. For the first time in the history of world cup, a team has won the cup without breaking a sweat. None of the teams was able to even challenge the Australians, let alone defeat them. At this moment, I think it’s time for us to think about a few things and ask a few questions.

Before the world cup, I remember vividly how some of the so-called experts were voicing their opinion on various news channels, making predictions; et al. Amid all the disagreements, there was one thing they unanimously believed in. It was the fact that Australia could be beaten. Everyone raved about the fact that England, which is probably the worst ODI team in the world, had beaten the Australians and if they could do it, then anyone else could do it. One of the experts even went on to the extent of saying that South Africa and Sri Lanka would be the teams to watch out for, apart from the usual dark horses New Zealand.

The funniest part of them all was that most of the experts seemed to think that India had the best chance of winning the cup. They even predicted the outcome of India vs. Pakistan match, the super 8 clash, semi finals, finals, heck; someone even named MS Dhoni the player of the tournament. Our very own Sunil Gavaskar even tried to take a dig at the Australian camp, and it just so happened that it was just before the world cup.

Consider the situation of the Australian team - you have international media which is constantly reporting the “so-called” downfall of Australian team, as they had lost five matches in a row, you have the “so-called” experts predicting that Australia could be beaten, you have enormous pressure on you as you are supposed to be the best team in the world, yesteryear superstars are taking a dig at the team, and last but not least, you have just slipped from the top position in the ODI rankings.

To me, these are reasons more than enough to ruin your world cup preparation and instill some self-belief within you. But no, the Australians are made of different substance. They simply ignored all these ranting, as they knew they were the best. They also knew that the only way to silence these pestering critics is to bulldoze your way into the final and lift the cup, which is exactly what they did.

• It was said that if England could beat them, anyone else could beat them, and they made sure it was the last time in the history of cricket England ever won a match against them.
• It was said that they could win matches only when they bat first, and they chased big totals.
• It was said that they could not bowl the opposition out thanks to their lackluster bowling attack, and they made the opposition look silly with totals less than 150.
• It was said that many of their superstars were on the wrong side of 30 and injured, and they came back stronger than ever.
• It was said that they bat well only on bouncy, seamy conditions and they thwarted everyone out of the stadium even on slow pitches.
• It was said that the “gap” between Australia and other teams was closing fast, and they made sure the gap is as big as the Pacific Ocean.
• A lot was said about their middle order which was not considered the strongest as opposed to New Zealand or South Africa, and they made sure the middle order never got a chance to bat.

Now, there are a few things we all could learn from the Australians. While we talk of playing our A game in a few important matches, they do it day in and day out. While we talk of setting high standards in batting, bowling, or fielding, they make sure they set the highest standards. Most importantly, while we sit here and speculate that we will win the world cup and make commercials that support the “so-called” blue billion, they simply annihilate everyone else and win the world cup.

Now it can be said that the competition between Australian and another team is like that of David and Goliath, but you have to remember one thing. In order to defeat a monster, you have to first acknowledge and accept the fact that he is indeed a monster first. Only then, you would be able to tune yourself to beat him. If you live in a fool’s paradise, thinking you are as good as the Australians, chances are that you will never improve and the scene that we saw in 1999, 2003, and 2007 will continue for decades together.