Maybe it’s just me getting deeper into my bad-guy wrestling character. Maybe it was genuinely an attempt to test the waters. But I ended up angering a lot of listeners on Thursday morning during the breakfast cricket show I co-host on SEN. It started with my calculated prediction about Marnus Labuschagne looking set to get that much-needed big score this weekend in Adelaide. I did not realise it would trigger a number of rather angsty correspondences through the text-line with some accusing me being a ‘fan-boy’ and not doing my job right.
That in turn led to me wondering out aloud on air about the level of “spite” that comes across quite often when cricket fans around this country make statements about their Test players. And despite very specifically mentioning that I wasn’t implying that anyone in Australia “wishes ill on their cricketers”, that’s exactly what many texters insisted I’d meant. Probably that’s just talkback radio in a nutshell.
But if anything, it further confirmed the hypothesis I’ve had for a while about where cricket fits into the sporting ecosystem of Australia. Mainly in terms of how I believe there are way more casual than hardcore cricket fans in this country. The types that tune in and out of following cricket, maybe even only paying real attention from summer to summer, and seem to be the loudest, when this current Australian team under Pat Cummins ends up on the receiving end of what they consider a humiliating defeat. I’m not saying that those who are invested a lot more in their pursuits aren’t seething after the way in which Australia were dominated by the visitors on the west coast.
But in the last week or so, the voices of doom have declared that a crisis is afoot when it comes to the Test team. Not just in terms of the future, but the present. While some demand harsh ultimatums to be handed out in the aftermath of the Perth Test, most want wholesale changes, for the axe to be swung around wildly. Others have questioned the attitude of the team led by Cummins, which includes their body language, their apparent eagerness to be too friendly with their Indian opponents, and also an alleged loss of intimidation. Not to forget supposed fractures emerging within the core group that has largely stayed the same for nearly a decade.
If anything, the wild overreactions following the home team’s 295-run defeat in the opening Test of the Border Gavaskar Trophy series are a window into the culture of outrage that exists just along the periphery of Australian cricket fandom. And often all it takes for the doomsaying to commence is a result like the one we witnessed in Perth.
This is not to say that this team is not under pressure. Or that what transpires at the Adelaide Oval over the next five days is not likely to have a telling blow on the fate of this current series, and also potentially the immediate futures of quite a few players in this current setup. For, let’s face it. If Australia’s unbeaten run in pink-ball Adelaide Tests comes to an end, just like their streak at the Perth Stadium did last week, then a change of guard is inevitable. Only Don Bradman’s Australians in the 1936-37 Ashes have come back from 0-2 down to win a five-match Test series. And the selectors, along with the fans, will be justified in ascertaining that sticking with this current group will not give them the best chance to rewrite history against this rampant Indian team.
For the record, the Australian ODI team, with the same man at the helm, and with pretty much the same core group of senior players, did overturn a 0-2 scoreline last year during the 50-over World Cup. It was done in quite remarkable fashion too, resulting in Australia’s greatest-ever World Cup final victory in Ahmedabad. But even Cummins will know that the turnaround on this occasion needs to happen over the coming weekend in Adelaide, with India’s lead still only 1-0.
The way most of Australia has reacted to the Test loss in Perth reminds me of how the country seemed to have turned on their team 12 months ago. Then, there was also that other trope that generally starts doing the rounds, the one that involves questioning the “Australian-ism” of the current lot. I’m almost surprised that the term ‘un-Australian’ hasn’t been bandied around too much this time around. Maybe that’s being left as back-up till whatever takes place in Adelaide.
It’s been intriguing then to hear how the players themselves have responded to the high levels of criticism from so many quarters.
“I think it’s quite a big reaction externally for one test loss,” is how Alex Carey responded to it on Tuesday. Nathan Lyon, meanwhile, claimed that he found a “lot” of the comments quite “humorous”, a day later.
A caller, earlier this week, by the way sounded shocked when in passing I mentioned Australia having a customary optional training session on Tuesday. “You’re saying they can afford to have ‘optional’ training after having their pants pulled down by India in the first Test?”
In response, I came up with an analogy that somewhat suggested that their pants were still in place, and at best it was just the belt that had come off. It wasn’t my best, I admit, but it did result in even nastier responses as has been the case whenever anyone in the media hasn’t fed into the outrage that has surrounded Cummins & Co over the past 10 days.
A level of indignation that will reach catastrophic levels if Australia are indeed unable to turn the corner at the Adelaide Oval. It’ll then be a case not so much of who will take the fall, but how many will.
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