Alan Border did the hardest yards. Captain Grumpy was dumped with a side void of proven expertise and the winning formula. But he soldiered on, even having to reprimand a few of his own players like McDermott on the field for not towing the line.
Then came the 3 Musketeers that changed Australian Cricket in many ways.
Bruce Reid began with his tall string-bean Left-Arm deliveries that caught the edge consistently or left the batsman with nothing but maidens passing him by. Bruce Reid basically did to the entire Windies side what x4 of their Bowlers did to others. Bruce Reid destroyed the Windies with pure accuracy and consistency. Alas, he was prone to back-problems and his career was bright but short.
Dean Jones brought into the game the slide-fielding and return-throw in one action. He also ran hard for 'every' run between wickets (Alan Border always hated batting with Jonesy
) to put pressure on the fieldsmen. Dean Jone's 'attacking' philosphy was also with the first to wear more 'padding' against such things as Windies 'bouncers' - this game him the luxury to attack their deliveries more so.
Greg Matthews was Mr Motivation. He brought into the side a sense of zeal and character, his spin-bowling was good, his fielding was a follow-thru with Jones's but his prime weapon was his sense of Self. Never daunted and always charismatic - he rattled any sense of 'behaviour' out there on the field. He also pulled great personal batting, bowling and fielding moments out of the hat when needed most for the team. He thrived on adversity against the odds.
After these 3 Musketeers brought the winning formula. Mark Taylor and Steve Waugh hammered home the victory. Mark Taylor exhibited stout people skills in dealing with his team, the public and the opposition and backed it up with good batting scores. Steve Waugh - a student of the Dirk Welham ways (who excelled at Sheild/State level, but just didn't have the interest to do so at Test ) of using superb tactics brought a sense of intellect into the game. Put it this way, he was smart enough to bat at number 6 when the ball was nice and soft to make his batting look even better than what it was. Then there was that 'slow ball' that he ushered into the One-Day matches.
Ponting just made the numbers, but he was primarily a batsman and a damn good one too. His Captaincy has survived because there really wsn't anyone else to fill the void. It seems these days that Cricketeers think of themselves as automatic CELEBRITIES and to a point where it is more important than the game itself. But we see this in all sports today where the MEDIA has intruded to the point of running the games itself. Dare a Sportsperson to tell the Media to "bugger off" so they can concentrate upon their game? I think not, as I can't see the players not wanting to publish their biography book after just scoring a few centuries or going without their peroxide fake-blonde skank (aussie Geisha girl).
Andrew Symonds was a hypocrite. He cried about being called Monkey-Boy (god help us if Red-Heads are called Ranga's
for Orangu-tangs) by the Indians and then took $millions to play in India along with other money-grubs while millions of Indians starved and etched a living out of rubbish tips. Steve Waugh goes on about the poverty and suffering of India but was too gutless to speak out against fellow cricketeers taking the money from the Indian Cricket Association.
Indian Cricket should be boycotted - what is happening to the people over there due to Caste etc, is far more atrocious than anything that happenned via Apartheid!
Test = the Bowlers game. Long drawn out game that allows the bowler to 'expend' 5 balls in an over to set up an attacking 6th ball if need be.
The batsman tend to be small of nature and defensive - going for 4s into the boundery.
Super 8's = the Batsman's game. This is where Sri Lanka kicked off with attacking batting and became World Champs (yep - I was laughed at 4 years previously
) . Darren 'Superman' Lehmann was also an attacking batter - which ironically suffered during the slower Test matches. This 'short game' puts pressure on the Bowler to be defensive - in other words, he must protect the runs rather than bother about capturing a wicket. This is where the Batsman became bigger in physic and power-hit 6's everywhere rather than shot defensive 4's along the grass. The bowlers became shorter and run-efficient with their defensive deliveries.
One Day cricket is definately a crowd puller but its structure and rules need change. Steve Waugh saw the obvious with Batsman being first in the line up = he who bats first = wins. Which is what happened mostly and predictably.
I sucggest a Batting side of specialist batsman and a Bowling side of specialist bowlers.
The game is hampered when specialist bowlers bowl to guys who can't bat like Glenn McGrath or 'Dutchy' Holland.
You wan't specialists against specialists. The best against the best.
Not part-time bowlers making up the numbers or guys who can't bat ...batting with just one run to win. Did anyone enjoy Graham Gooch bowl his boring medium pacers?
Also, turn the One-Day game into 25 over Innings x2 to make the predictablility of a win less ...predictable.
I've lost all interest in Cricket since the Indian Comp kicked off. Its a shame that the Shield/State game doesn't compete to do better.
There was a period where overseas players did want to play here.