The King Dethroned

Finally Australia has been dethroned from the top spot of one-day cricket. It’s a different debate whether South Africa deserves to be at the top. But statistics clearly shows that South Africa is no.1 one-day side in the world at the moment. Almost a year ago when New Zealand opener Lou Vincent said that Australians were not invincibles, few took his words seriously. Today, everyone has started questioning Australia's chances of retaining their hold on world cup as well.

But why was Australia dethroned? Experts say that sudden loss of Andrew Symonds created an imbalance in the team which Australia couldn’t rectify in time and lost the finals of CB Series. But for years Australians have been boasting about their more than able ‘second-line’ and actually Australia is too great a side to be unsettled by loss of one individual. They even managed to win the last world cup, after sudden loss of none other than Shane Warne. I believe, whenever a strong team suddenly starts losing, its more a systems' failure than individuals' failure.

For CB series final it was clearly seen that players had run out of steam. They were not showing the same passion that they showed during the Ashes. Probably during the Ashes they stepped up their game to such a higher plateau that they were clearly exhausted by the end of Australian summer.

In their loss to New Zealand, absence of Ponting, Symonds, Lee and Gilchrist might have been too big a factor (It’s interesting to note here that last year, with full strength Australian side, against a depleted Kiwi squad missing Fleming they were not convincing in their series victory.) But in the decline in their performance in CB series, I see captaincy as a big factor too. Ricky Ponting has had an enviable record as a captain in both forms of game. However, any student of the game would agree that his style of captaincy is completely different from that of Steve Waugh. While Waugh was a sly strategist, Ponting depends more on muscle power. It seems, Ponting’s ideology is that a good team performance is nothing but sum total of eleven strong individual performances. Hence, when team as a collective unit might be failing, a single superlative performance can win the game. That’s precisely what we have seen during his tenure (The most glaring example, Ponting himself at Fatullah) . Australia has been lucky to have players of calibre to deliver powerful singular performances. No matter what the situation be, somebody would pull them through. In such a scenario one needs players to have tremendous self-belief and motivation.

But whenever countered by an equally motivated and aggressive opposition, supported by smart captaincy, Australia looks clueless. We have seen that often in the past. During Ashes in England, against India, against South Africa and now against England. As during Ashes in England in 2005, during finals of CB series Ponting had no plan B. He clearly looked out of options and hence the revived English side got into the driver seat.

Having said that Australia is not invincible, it's also too early to write them off as non-favourites for the world cup. What Australians have in ample, unlike many other teams, is the big-game temperament. They have this uncanny ability to step up their games to indomitable levels in big games. After all Cricket is full of upsets and turnarounds. For a team like Australia it shouldn't be too difficult to get back to their winning habits.