Beware of Kangaroos

Beware of Kangaroos:

It was in the year 1987 when Australia was known to many merely as a country in the world map.  There was a person in the name of Allan Border who had to shoulder the burden of a very blunt Australian team in its quest of their elusive world cup triumph. Nobody and I mean nobody including any of the cricketing experts believed in that side, captained by Border. In the end, as Englishmen were chasing the Australian score in the final of the world cup at Eden Gardens, Calcutta, one mistake of Mike Gatting in the form of a reverse sweep altered the course of the match entirely. The wickets of England began to tumble then and finally Border lifted the world cup trophy in 1987.

Since then, Aussies won three of the last five world cups, taking its world cup tally to four, the most by any cricketing team.  They had also been in four consecutive finals from 1996 till last world cup in 2007. The secret of Australian team’s success story has to be analysed. We now are seeing an Australian team, completely depleted, with just over a fortnight to go for the world cup 2011. The cricketing experts are rating India as one of the favourites to win the world cup, completely oblivious to the fact that there is a team called Australia.

No wonder, the recent shabby performances have toppled Australia from their so called invincible status but however nothing more foolish it would be if people start to write them off. I gave above the reference of 1987 world cup triumph of Australia only to throw the light to all those people, who feel immune to the threat of the Aussies, All the people, who have been watching cricket since the days of Ian Chappel captaining his side in 1975 world cup final, will definitely agree that they have been the mentally toughest side in the world.  

The Kangaroos are never going to give up. Though they may not be getting regular wickets or scoring runs collectively as of now once they get into their rhythm they will become unstoppable. They don’t require a Tendulkar or a Lara or any of those big names but let me tell you each one of their players, on their day, can score better than any of the top players in the world. They are mentally so tough. Allan Border and his predecessor Kim Hughes were mentally tough during their playing days and that mental toughness continued to have its effect on their successors-Mark Taylor, Steve Waugh and Ricky Ponting. Speaking of Steve Waugh, he was one of those guys who was treated as a kid during his early days of his career in the regime of Border.

Steve never came into reckoning when Australia played in the eightees and in the early part of ninetees. The focus of the viewers would always be on players like Marsh, Boon, Jones, Border, Mcdermott, etc. Steve never had the fluency in his batting and with the ball in his hand, all I can say that is he escaped being called as a “lolly pop” bowler by Sir Boycott, but only just. But again his inner self guided him. He toured West Indies as a normal batsman but when he returned he returned with respectable test batting averages. People slowly began to realize his potential. He began to score more and more and more and his back foot play slowly began to yield fruits. He went on and on and on and he crossed fiftees which remained as his average till at the time of his retirement.

And the same guy had the guts to say to Gibbs while the latter dropped his catch that “Mate’you have just dropped the world cup” and went on further to win the match for Australia, scoring a century. Can you imagine any of our Indian players telling that? We are completely meditating on Sachin’s brilliance and Sehwag’s blitzkriegs but would you even think of them making such a statement, leave alone winning matches for India later? Such guys we have seen only in Australia. So, to underestimate them now is just nothing but a stupidity. They need just one spark to ignite them.  They have players who can win them matches though they are collectively failing today. The sudden disappearance of players owing to retirements has just came as a shock but mind you they are slowly convalescing. This could happen to any team. But, if there is one team which can rise up from the debris and that too early it will be Australia only.

So, never take Australia lightly. I bet they are going to win the world cup. Beware of them.