When will it be fun to beat Australia again?

Every sport has that one team, defeating which is a holy grail of sorts. For close to two decades, Australia had assumed that role in world cricket. The team was accorded fancy titles, the Invincibles, for instance, and appeared indestructible. But personnel changes and lack of preparedness for change (and failure) have, over the last couple of years, rendered Australia vulnerable. Beset with problems typically associated with lesser teams, they have gone from being the unbeatables of cricket to mere mortals. As most recently evidenced at Lord’s, it is getting much too easy to beat them. And despite England’s deserved glee and India’s gloating not long before that, this is not a good thing for cricket. Now it is logical that there would be few to no bleeding hearts for Australia’s new-found proclivity to fail – they have won too often and too hard for too long to elicit immediate sympathy – but do consider the unhealthy consequences of their deterioration for the sport as a whole. Take an objective view and you will find that their loss is, in many ways, cricket’s loss. [caption id=“attachment_979331” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Clarke’s team is struggling badly and that’s not good for cricket. Reuters[/caption] Let me explain. In the current firmament, there are very few teams – in a very small group to begin with – that can be considered strong and/or consistent. You would certainly not use the word dominant for any one of them. But we can do without dominant. What we cannot do with is a sport where the tonality of the play is dull and the outcome of the match is predictable not because one team is that good, but because most teams are that, well, not good. (Just to be clear, my focus is on Tests and not the shorter formats which have a more fluid and flat hierarchy.) England and, to a lesser extent, South Africa make worthy rivals but competition is running thin. India have an on-off relationship with form and attitude while the others are really playing Russian roulette. This luke-warm setting can only be hastening the (some say) inevitable demise of Test cricket. And though it is easy to blame this on the fans and their enchantment with the quicker fare, as much, if not more, fault lies with the sub-par and, worse, boring teams. Solution: Australia. Their skill and attitude made them the most watchable and playable opponents in the sport. Their tussles with the English may be more documented but even Indian fans have traversed the globe to watch contests with their favourite foes, besting Pakistan on the rivalry stakes sometimes. The appeal lay in Australia’s gritty take-no-prisoners approach which may have had churlish detractors but even their criticism cloaked a grudging respect. Many teams have, in fact, tried to borrow from the Aussie rule book but while some have learnt to sledge as well, no one has been able to quite match the swagger. Ask any cricketer and they would admit the satisfaction of besting Australia was incomparable. Remember Sourav Ganguly’s India that broke the Invincibles’ unbeaten streak of 16 Tests? That team – and that series – became the stuff of legends. Unfortunately, now, an Aussie thrashing is par for the course. England’s stranglehold on the ongoing Ashes series has disappointed those of us who were waiting for an exciting contest. It is always satisfying to thrash the competition but humbling a giant is even more exciting when he isn’t wounded. Cricket needs Australia to heal. Not patched up with random bandages that can be ripped off in a second, but through long-term recovery such that the force is back with them. I don’t ask you to root (no pun intended) for the Aussies to win but, for cricket’s sake, hope for them to reclaim some of their lost confidence and self-belief. If nothing else, let beating them become fun again. The author writes on popular culture, cricket and whatever else takes her fancy. She tweets @abbykhaitan