Young India signals the end of an Australian Era

Some time ago when Australia toured South Africa and demolished them, the South Africans said openly that they could not wait to see them leave the country as they were so demoralized by the rampaging Australians. This tired, stressed and sorry Australian team after a long and bitter series must be relieved to see the Indian team leave their shores with the Commonwealth Bank trophy. This tour has been one of the most acrimonious ones in recent times and knowledgeable and older critics liken it to the same angst that was part of the bodyline series. But it has been a major disappointment for Australia who was nowhere near its best and yet made it to the finals in a canter. Still there were a few worrying signs on the way. They lost a low scoring game to India and could not chase a moderate score against Sri Lanka in the match preceding the finals. In the first finals they came across Tendulkar who played a once in a life time innings. The second final was no different as Tendulkar again made things count with a fantastic yet restrained innings of 91 that was still enough. What a farewell for the little master in a country that just idolizes him! In fact it would not be an exaggeration to say that Tendulkar has easily been the most admired international player above Worrell and even Lara. And he has entertained the doting Australian public and showed them what a great human being he is, surrounded as he is by lesser mortals. I speak of the beamer bowled by Brett Lee at the great man. Despite prodding by media the great man brushed it aside saying he had a lot of regard for the bowler and it must have slipped. I am certain, Brendon McCullum would not have agreed. Imagine the chaos that could have happened had he, as he was well within his rights to have done, complained. A reminder from the humble champion that cricket is still a game.

So what ails Australia?
Over the last twelve years, Australia and its team have built an aura of invincibility around themselves as they beat every team in sight at every venue. They did not lose a World Cup game in two successive World Cups in 2003 and 2007 and recently even won the Champions trophy that had eluded them for quite some time. When Australia lost a game it was news, though in the last few weeks the news is being made a lot more frequently than they would like. The problem has been that a lot of Australia’s success has been built around the amazing success, consistency and dominance of Ricky Ponting as a batsman who has delivered big time on the big stage. Remember Johannesburg and the World Cup final? This season, both in the tests and the one-dayers, Ricky Ponting has had an eminently forgettable season. I admire Ponting, but I do not like him, which is why he does not have my sympathy. But this tour has drained him more than anyone else and throw in some unplayable balls early on in the tour, accusations, hearings, media manipulations, complaints by his team mates, calls for his sacking... He has not had a moment of peace and will be waiting to take a break from the game. To Ponting’s poor form add the poor batting of Andrew Symonds, the sporadic brilliance of Gilchrist who was busy offering good byes, the scratchy form of Mathew Hayden and a below par performance by Michael Hussey who seems a far cry from the Mr. Cricket that he was a couple of seasons ago. The Australian bowlers have come to the party right through the summer and covered up for the poor performance of the illustrious batsmen. But in some defense of the Australian batsmen, they have had to cope with pitches that have not been their usual belters even in the one-dayers.

Let’s also put another fact in perspective. Australian and world batsmen are not comfortable with the moving ball. England won back the Ashes in 2005 after 17 long years thanks to the new ball and reverse swing that Mathew Hoggard, Andrew Flintoff and Simon Jones produced. One of the reasons for India’s success has been the phenomenal bowling of Ishant Sharma who seems to have rattled the Australians and Praveen Kumar’s bowling in the finals has been a revelation. With Gilchrist and the under-recognized Brad Hogg deciding to move on, Australia will be hard pressed to regain their dominance as they have certainly lost it, after this series, against the Indians who were hardly fancied. The climb to the top again may not happen for some time, in my view at least.

Lets focus on the future Champions
Now that we have knocked the world champions off their perch, it is easy to believe that we are the world champions. Sadly it is not as simple as all that as the ICC rankings are far more complex and we need to be consistent. We have a long and challenging home season with South Africa who have a couple of feisty fast bowlers and some stodgy but high scoring batsmen who will fancy our tracks. But clearly this team is on its way up. It has a mature test leader in Anil Kumble who led the team wonderfully in a hostile and challenging environment and deserved a far better score line. Unlike Australia where Ricky Ponting had to take the pressure in both forms of the game, we had a younger and more charismatic leader in Dhoni for the one-dayers whose captaincy and savoir faire have been wonderful to watch and relish. Clearly India is on to a good thing with this team and a lot of young talent seems to be on evidence in the under 19 World Cup winners as well. Yet it is worthwhile to remember that it has been by and large our bowling that has been winning us matches recently on pitches that have been quite unlike our own. Our bowlers could well struggle at home. But let’s just savour this moment without worrying too much about the future. Yes we have toppled Australia, at their den. This is a supreme moment for Indian cricket.

Ramanujam Sridhar is CEO, brand-comm and the author of “One land, one billion minds”.