Australia's freefall

Readers of my blog will probably recall a piece I’d written four years ago about the likelihood of Australia slumping in international cricket. In that period, Australia have not only conceded two Ashes series, but have also plunged to No.4 in the latest Test rankings. At the start of the decade, it was blasphemous to even suggest that they would one day have to concede their No.1 ranking, which was considered their birthright. The monopoly has ended, and the realisation of being reduced to lesser mortals was plastered across the glum faces at The Oval, hands folded and defeated.

It was a shock Ricky Ponting and his men had seen coming. The 2005 Ashes defeat threatened to knock them off the perch, albeit briefly, before normal service resumed. Just when obituaries were being written, they stormed back in the Super Series, demolishing the World XI, before caning England 5-0 at home in 2007.

Australia had turned their arch rivals to dust in the most convincing manner, but the celebrations had more than a tinge of sadness. When Ponting walked up the podium in Sydney, after the final Test, there was a lump in his throat. When he spoke, his voice choked. His best and most trusted aides had called it a day as the series progressed. Damien Martyn announced a sudden retirement after the second Test before the bombshell arrived. Justin Langer, Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne had all announced that it would be their final swansong. Ponting knew the road ahead would be rocky and that the seismic changes within the team would seriously test his managerial skills.

There was further evidence of that slump when India defeated them last year, before South Africa raided their own backyard. They hit back on the return tour of South African earlier this year and the picture looked rosy all over again. But the budding romance was nothing more than a passionate fling, which lasted just two Tests. They were hammered in the third Test and the one-dayers before ingloriously bowing out in the first-round in the World Twenty20.

The exodus was bound to bite them, sooner rather than later, as I’d predicted three years ago. It’s not to suggest that the players they’d picked for the Ashes weren’t world class. They were hard done by due to poor management. They were within their rights to gripe about the umpiring in the two Tests they lost, but Rudi Koertzen’s blunders didn’t turn the series. It was that of team selection which cost them.

Australia’s fortunes in England depended on the potency of their bowling attack. With Mitchell Johnson not at his knuckle-breaking best and Brett Lee unable to get match fit, the team faced serious questions. Why was Stuart Clark introduced so late in the series? Why was Nathan Hauritz not persisted with for all five Tests? Johnson had a terrific game at Headingley but just one good match out of five doesn’t cut it.

This is where the retirements of McGrath and Warne stung. It hurt the most when Australia failed to close the deal in the tense moments at Cardiff. Clark, considered the nearest substitute for McGrath, was mysteriously benched for the first three games. Hauritz is no Warne, but he performed above himself at the start of the series, despite rubbish being thrown at him from the media and the public. He ought to have played at the Oval, but omitting him on a dry pitch, with the ball gripping and turning, will haunt them no end.

His omission reflects on the lack of confidence the country has in its spinners. It also reeks of insecurity. Last year, three spinners landed in India with the A team, competing for Warne’s place. None of them were on the plane to England. Jason Krejza was dropped after taking eight wickets on debut, Bryce McGain was dumped after being caned in Cape Town, and Beau Casson was plain forgotten. Hauritz was suddenly the new messiah, who unfortunately had to twiddle his thumb in the deciding Test.

Australia still have the manpower to be a leading Test side, provided you mix them correctly. Ponting assumed his experiments would work and tried to convince the public that everything was fine. But it was just a façade. It was as if the team was in a state of denial throughout the tour, when it was clear that some plans weren’t falling into place.

I’m no Australia fan, and I must admit it’s a gratifying feeling watching other teams play catch up. Watching the new Australia fight it out was best summarized by the journalist Christian Ryan, who wrote a piece for us five months back. It goes: “Lately when he bats, Mike Hussey's hands squeeze his bat handle so tight you expect to see toothpaste spurting out the top. In the great lake of sweat on his forehead you can almost make out the bowler's reflection. Watching Hussey concentrate - concentrate so hard that sometimes he forgets to blink - is one of the many little fascinations of witnessing Australia's cricketers right now. They are all having to concentrate.”