RISE AND FALL OF AUSTRALIAN CRICKET

Australian Cricket – the pinnacle of performance, skill and leadership.

Picture above depicts Australian cricket – confident and strong. The wily Ian Chappell (1972-1980) leading the Aussies with a will to win.

How is it that we ask ourselves today - has the Australian cricket reached its nadir? Probably not.

When I see the third India-Australia Test at Indore (March 01 to March 05, 2023) I recalibrate my assessment of the present Australian team. The nine wicket win at Holkar Stadium confirms the passion with which Australians play cricket.

What went wrong with India? When MS Dhoni lofted a signature six off the Sri Lankan bowler to become the only captain after 1983 to lift the Cup breaking Kapil Dev’s 28-year record, he peeled off in celebration, arms aloft, crowd in raptures and the match culminated for a ceremony on field nobody amongst us ever imagined the 22-yard strip would be so foreign to Indian bowlers that the Lloyns and the Kuhnemanns would swagger into the same wild celebration we somewhat look upon as nonnative on Indian soil!!

The answer lies in Leadership!

The Indore pitch was a turning track tailormade for Indian spinners but were caught on the wrong foot as Nathan Lyon and Mathew Kuhnemann flighted - it took a good while for Jadeja and Ashwin to hide the tremor in their strides.

It was increasingly painful to see Steve Smith scoring over our Indian captain – it might be one thing the Indian media paying glowing tributes to Rohit’s captaincy and quite another he actually making impromptu changes on the field as a captain to afford the bowlers the right placements.

Take this – at one point Steve Smith had Nathan Lyon bowling round the wicket with one leg slip, one forward short leg, one very short mid-wicket and one short mid-on. Cheteshwar Pujara facing and the batsman could not steal a single, we all saw Smith kept applauding and the Indians kept sulking. Anyone who rocked up late to the arena unaware of the match situation was soon given a fair indication of things to come.

It was only Pujara’s 59 off 142 balls which shone like a diamond amidst the wooden freckles, an assortment of mindless batting - apparently Indians made a devil out of a pitch which was only a nice brute. It was difficult to bat on but not impossible to score runs off. Ask the smiling Travis Head!!

Indeed, Cheteshwar Pujara drew a generous round of applause from the crowd with the great Sunil Gavaskar praising his patience – his hallmark – and the best one that day, yet the man humbly raking pebbles away from his chiselled wooden armour was anything but

Indeed, Cheteshwar Pujara drew a generous round of applause from the crowd with the great Sunil Gavaskar praising his patience – his hallmark – and the best one that day, yet the man humbly raking pebbles away from his chiselled wooden armour was anything but.

In the seething heat the crouched Rahul Dravid was a sight to behold!!

A warrior himself for so many years his failure to inject reason and energy to the ones straddled wicketless on afternoons with a percentage performance and the last drops of energy sapped from the legs of hapless bowlers marked the end of a ravishing dressing room story between the coach and his pupil – an edifice broken and irreparable for long - a general failing to strategize tell-tale winners in crux situations. At the end of third day in Indore, one that included a Lyon masterclass and a feeble Indian defiance setting up the possibility of an intriguing fourth test – the last of the series – it somehow wasn’t an entirely ridiculous study to make.

Coming back to leadership, if we go back in time a little – we do not need a Stephen Hawking though -we can see how inspiring leaders of the game have been and how they were able to transform a mediocre unit into world beaters – an ability which has become a distant star now!!

Allan Border had taken charge of the Australian team at possibly the worst time, quality-wise, in their history, in 1984-85 after Kim Hughes's tear-drenched resignation. Dennis Lillee, Greg Chappell and Rodney Marsh had retired and a number of players were serving bans for having toured South Africa. The squad wasn't the best, and through 1985-86, the losses piled up. So bad was the situation that Border even threatened to resign. That he didn't was because the Australian Cricket Board (later Cricket Australia) staunchly backed him, and they brought in Bob Simpson as the team's coach to help Border along.

The Simpson-Border association, the general and his pupil, started well with the tied Test in Chennai, part of the drawn series in India, but the Ashes loss pushed Australia back again.

So, when they went to the subcontinent for the 1987 Reliance World Cup, it wasn't with a lot of hope.

Still, they won.

David Boon and Geoff Marsh, the openers, scored 447 and 428 runs respectively, Dean Jones scored 314, and others, down the order, pitched in with crucial knocks. Steve Waugh and Simon O'Donnell added key runs and picked up important wickets.

There also was on display a trait that we have come to see, in big matches over the years, as quintessentially Australian: winning key moments. In the first match of the 1987 World Cup – let’s take an example - India were well on course to chasing down the 271-run target till, right at the close, Australia effected two run-outs and Waugh went past Maninder Singh's defence to clinch an unlikely one-run win.

Luck, yes, sure. Pluck too.

Another beaming example of how leadership transforms is the West Indian cricket under the stewardship of Clive Lloyd.

One has to understand that the West Indies is an entity that has been made only for cricket. The entity consists of several island nations stretching from North America to the tip of South America. To keep this band of nations together was a difficult feat even for seasoned diplomats. But, for Clive Lloyd, the main task of making the West Indies one of the greatest sides in modern cricket was foremost.

The story of the domination had its roots in disaster. During the 1974/75 series in Australia, Clive Lloyd and the West Indies were humiliated 1-5. The likes of Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thomson adopted a hostile style of bowling that left the West Indies with a wounded pride. Learning the lessons of that defeat, Lloyd was determined that ‘never again’ would they be humiliated. Lloyd got his own bunch of bowlers that would instil fear in the opposition.

Lloyd wanted bowlers who could decimate opposition and batsmen who could destroy bowlers. Armed with a vision, Lloyd decided to get in professionalism and discipline, an anti-thesis at that time of the laid-back Calypso style lifestyle. Flair, style was kept but at a price of big runs and big wickets. Everything came into place and it set the stage for the most dominant period in world cricket.

In Lloyd’s team, there would be the brilliance of Gordon Greenidge and Desmond Haynes at the top. In the middle order, the intimidation of Lloyd plus the swag of the King - Viv Richards. The West Indies arsenal of fast bowling would have the fiery Andy Roberts, Malcolm Marshall, Joel Garner and Michael Holding - the Whispering Death.

Under Lloyd’s captaincy, apart from the one against Australia, West Indies never lost a series. He was at the helm when West Indies won the 1975 and 1979 World Cup in England. The 1980s was the pinnacle of West Indies domination, in which they lost only one series away and not a single at home for twenty years.

Both Australia and the West Indies benefitted immensely from iconic leaders in Ian Chappell, Allan Border, Steve Waugh, Ricky Ponting, Clive Lloyd and Viv Richards.

To This Day - one would never forget the courage, power and skill of Viv Richards. West Indies were touring Australia. Viv was on the crease and Jeff Thomson was at his ferocious best. Jeff bowled one on the middle and leg and Viv one step forward and then in one electrifying moment lofted Jeff off the back foot straight over his head for a six!! Audacious.

Along with the rapturous crowd the Australian fielders also clapped. Jeff was awe-struck, it came straight from heaven.

After Lloyd, Viv Richards led his team to more wins and accolades. Do we have one of these today in India? Sadly NO.

Leadership defines, leadership wins, leadership motivates!!

The previous two tests (Nagpur and Delhi) won by India was more due to listless captaincy by Pat Cummins than to tactical brilliance of Rohit Sharma. Like Australia and the West Indies, India also had its share of magnificent leaders who changed the face of Indian cricket in their times and beyond – only to be wrecked to Titanical proportions now and to this day seems it’s beyond repair for a good time to come.

Let us be honest, we do not have a MAK Pataudi, or a Sourav Ganguly or a MS Dhoni to mend the wrongs and steer India to a path of invincibility. Because cricket is the only game, of all games, where the leadership on the field and off it is akin to political leadership shown by Heads of State or equivalent; their force of conviction, their ability to motivate - everything revolves around what they do and how they do. Bad leaders spell destruction as we have enough examples before us both in cricket as well as in present realpolitik.

In summary the West Indian cricket, and to a lesser extent Australian cricket, is in a deep abyss, its horrible state is compounded by the dual effect of pathetic leadership in cricket as well as in political arena.

Indian cricket has only one silver lining - it’s Board. The BCCI has enough cash rolling to obfuscate – as of now - the leadership woes it is facing. It does not have an immediate solution up its sleeve, it seems. It has to wade through these troubled times and wait for another Sourav Ganguly or MS Dhoni to emerge.

At the time this article goes to print Rahul Dravid will be in Ahmedabad for the final Test starting 9th March. Is it time to say goodbye to the setting sun of Rahul’s men and usher new sun in the form of Harmanpreet Kaur.

Harman, Bienvenido al Campo de Batalla!!

About the Author – Jayant Banerjee played cricket at a competitive level and follows cricket very closely. He is known for incisive writing from his early days. The views expressed in the article are entirely that of the author.