Death of Aussie Cricket
(time to be controversial)
Well know that we in Aussie land have a new more touchy-feely, environmentally friendly (about time!) Prime Minister, it seems that our Aussie cricketers are no longer allowed to win at all costs. Yes, the hard-edged, never give up spirit of the displaced Aboriginals, early settlers, and Diggers is now suddenly out of fashion.
let's face it, in cricket, Australia had some lean years before Alan Border re-developed the gutsy never say die attitude that allowed moderately skilled teams to go on with later star bowlers (Ooh Ah and that spinner) to conquer the world. While the tough attitude was suitable and needed in Border's day, now that Australia has been on top for so long however, the same attitude has seen the team attacked from all quarters.
Apparently having fun is now supposed to be more important than winning. Sounds good - but as India just showed, when the team was forced to play a bit nicer, it started to lose... Does this mean the team must slide down the rankings for a while, suffer in confidence, and then be re-vitalised at some future point by the tough attitude again when it will be ok?
Personally, I think a high level, test-based competition should actually be tough. Otherwise, what's the point of watching a game where both teams are trying harder to be friendly than to win. Its the dare to win attitude that makes the game compelling in the first place. So say we all, except now that toughness is out of style. But we did sign Kyoto!
posted by jnxyz at
7:22 PM
4 Comments:
How can a team say that they want to play a game as hard as possible and then launch an offical complaint when one of their team gets called a monkey? While the term may have loose racial conatations my years of 4d social cricket have taught me their are far worse insults dished up on a cricket field then the term monkey!!!
I have no problem with the hard nosed approach, the issue I have is when you only want this approach when it suits the team.
You cannot say you believe in playing to win at all costs but then have the philosphy that close ground catches should be judged by the fielder.
You cannot claim to try and use every advantage then complain about english bowlers getting massaged before a spell.
You cannot say test cricket is a battle field and then complain when the fielding captain does not check on a player hit by a bouncer.
Australia may be right to persue the hard nosed win at all cost approach. But they must understand others are going to follow suit and when they do you have to be willing to cop it. Ricky Ponting does not need to whinge,in my mind he is the best Australian batsman of all time, but for some reason when other teams return the Australian agression Ponting is not backward in expressing his displeasure.
In the words of Tana "its not tiddlywinks" and if Ponting wants to live by the sword ....
By
Aaron More, at 3:25 PM
i'll never forget chris cairns saying how he was heckled with choo-choo noises after his sister was killed on a railway crossing. even writing it now i find it hard to believe that anyone could stoop that low.
i think you might find that ricky ponting considers the whinging his own special brand of 'playing the game'. aussie teams always try to rark up the opposition off field - anything to get the opposition's mind off the actual game. it backfired on them when the indians retaliated in kind recently by offering to call off the tour - exactly the sort of thing ponting's boys would have done.
By
andrew killick, at 4:32 PM
I could be wrong but I am about 90% sure Chris Cairns said in his book that the choo choo train incident never happened and is an urban myth
By
Aaron More, at 10:46 AM
it has to be - like i say, i can't believe that would happen.
By
andrew killick, at 10:55 AM
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