Adam Zampa declined to sing the national anthem at Lucknow. Ditto for Andrew McDonald. Makes no sense to me. Are they not proud to be Australians on a World Cup stage? Are they not honoured to represent the great sporting nation? Are they not grateful for the canary yellow shirt and opportunities provided by cricket and country? If not, why are they out there? For their own personal glory? Perhaps the privilege should be handed to others.
I guess you cannot blame a player for clamming up when the coach is doing likewise. Perhaps Zampa and McDonald just happened to have their mouths shut when the cameras were on them in India. It’s just such an odd, meaningless, pointless, awkward, cringe-worthy stance. Pompous posturing. Surly and miserable, nothing powerful about it, because nobody has the faintest clue about their exact grievance. If they care about the anthem’s or Australia’s shortcomings so much, they should tell us more about it. Push for change. Because without action, they don’t really care at all.
A mate suggests caution in writing this. There may be another reason for their silence, he says. Maybe they just can’t sing. Maybe they’re embarrassed to warble the words while a cameraman’s lens is right there in front of their stony, statuesque faces. Maybe they auditioned for the school choir and were laughed out of the assembly hall. Maybe they were told in childhood, “You have the worst singing voice in history!” Maybe they’re forever scarred by such things. Maybe they’re simply shy and secretly pine to break into full voice like Zac Efron in Hairspray. Here’s my response to all that. Doubt it.
International sport is a celebration. An expression of who we are. Zampa and McDonald have their knickers in a knot. About what … we know not. The assumption is always that saying no to the national song is to stand up for Indigenous rights. Fair enough. But they haven’t said anything of the sort. For better or worse, it’s the only tune we have, a moment of unity, when players and the people supporting them are brought together in a dove of creaking, croaking, gravelly, high-pitched, low-pitched, delightful or diabolical human voices. Every Australian player except Zampa either sang it with heart and soul or did their humble best. Marsh and Warner looked ready to whip off their shirts and wave it around his head. Zampa and McDonald didn’t want to know. Perhaps there’s something about Australia, or their fellow Australians, they dislike? They’re never too far from a microphone. Perhaps they can tell us more.
McDonald is a dry sort of character. As a Test player, he was once asked in South Africa about the drastically changing nature of a Cape Town pitch from one day to the next. Must feel like you’re playing on two different decks, was the cheerful suggestion from a good-natured local journalist. McDonald rolled his eyes and deadpanned, “I think you’ll find it’s the same pitch.”
Zampa is a more colourful sort of character. He took a match-winning 4-47 as Australia finally got off the mark after their mid-pitch mix-up of a start to the World Cup. Sri Lanka lost 9-52 to be rolled for 209 before the early decampings of Dave Warner (11) and Steve Smith (nought) left Cummins’ side a nervy 2-24. The top order abounds in nature’s gifts, of ball-striking beauties rich and rare, and in history’s page, and the scorebook, Australia advanced to a crucial five-wicket win.
After a couple of ordinary outings, Zampa was finally on song, coming good despite the inconvenience of back spasms. “I was worse for wear the last couple of days,” he said. “It was a tough one to get through today. I felt like adrenaline was going to get me through and a bit of Panadeine Forte. Hopefully it‘s one of those random ones that will wear off in the next day or so.”
The Australians had been criticised for looking flatter than a bat’s blade in the World Cup losses to India and South Africa. They trotted out against Sri Lanka and looked … bizzarely flat. Mitchell Starc was cranky about batters leaving the bowler’s end crease before his deliveries, thrice pulling up but declining to go the whole hog and execute a quick Mankad that may have destroyed international relations forever. Cummins (2-32) bowled a great spell and conjured a run out to give Australia momentum and then Zampa chimed in.
“We mentioned that out there,” Zampa said of lifting the body language. “Obviously the first two games, we knew we‘d been a bit flat. Then it happened again. They were none-for and the conversations around the drinks break was to lift the energy a bit. I thought the fielders did a really good job of that. The ring kind of tightened up a bit and then ’Davey’ (Warner) got a couple of catches. Cummins’ spell in particular was a bit of a game-changer for us and even his energy in the field. The run out after the rain break changed the energy for us and then once I was able to get a couple, we got a bit of a roll and the energy changed in the group.”
Perhaps Zampa didn’t sing the anthem because his Panadeine Forte was yet to kick in. Perhaps he was zeroing in so wholeheartedly on his duties that he was rendered speechless and songless. Perhaps the Australians’ lackadaisical feeling while fielding extended to a few of the players, and coach, while everyone else was crooning. In joyful strains, credit to Zampa for getting his legspinners to sing.
He needed a turnaround. By turning a few. He’d taken 0-53 from eight overs in the six-wicket defeat to India. Recorded 1-70 from ten overs in the 177-run hammering from South Africa. “I look back on the first two games, and I probably look at the last game (against South Africa) as one where I could have made a difference and made it easier for those other guys,” he told reporters at Lucknow. “But the Indian game, we were under the pump defending 200 and I‘m always going to be the guy who tries to get wickets. Bowling to set batters and trying to build some pressure, I just wasn’t really able to do that.”
The Australians have a potentially tournament-defining match against Pakistan at Bangalore’s M. Chinnaswamy stadium on Friday. Their win/loss will be level at two apiece and they’ll be back in business to make the semi-finals if they knock over one of the Cup heavyweights. As Marsh roared at his teammates when he brought up his half-century against Sri Lanka, “Come on!”
Zampa said of his slow start to the tournament: “I won‘t make any excuses. I think I should be good enough to play that role as well, but just it’s taken me a lot longer to get into the game than I would have liked. The figures, ’whatever.’ It’s more about my attitude and reflecting on, did I bowl the ball where I wanted to? Did I make the right decisions? Did I put my game on the line to try and make a difference? It’s a World Cup so you can get on a roll. Obviously, a really big game against Pakistan in Bangalore and if we can put it all together play a good game there, you go two-two and the feeling is much better.“
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