Australia Cricket – En route to former glory - Opinion
After going through a horrible phase in the last few months, the former goliath of modern-day cricket Australia are getting back in the saddle en route to their former best.
This was evident in the recently concluded bilateral one-day series in http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746 won by 3-2. However, the Men in Gold are still not the shadow of their former self when they ruled the cricket world, irrespective of which team they were up
against in any part of the world.
Things were looking smooth for the former World Champions before the 2010-11 Ashes that turned the tables around and left the record four time champions of the world in disarray when their Ashes rivals http://www.senore.com/Cricket/England-c56013 won the series by 3-1, managing to retain the
urn.
After this distasteful performance, the spot of aged players in the Australian outfit was put into question as many felt that it was time to inject young blood in the over-the-hill Australian contingent.
However, refusing to take this gamble the Australian selectors decided to retain big names in the team for the International Cricket Council (http://www.senore.com/Cricket/ICC-World-Cup-2011-c100625) World Cup 2011, since Australia were defending their title no one in Cricket Australia (CA) wanted to send
inexperienced players on such a heavy tour.
Nonetheless, Australia failed to defend their title as they were knocked out of the tournament before they could reach the final of the mega event.
During the tournament the Aussies seemed out of colour and were clearly struggling in the global tournament.
The desperation of the defending champions was exposed when they hurriedly recalled http://www.senore.com/Cricket/MEK-Hussey-c1942, who was not fully fit after undergoing a hamstring operation of his left leg. Nonetheless, the player insisted that the team needed him and he was fit enough
to play one-day cricket, the selectors then put him on the next flight to the subcontinent as a last ditch effort to save their world title.
Since 1999, the world had not seen the cricket World Cup go to another country as Australia had firmly defended its title, however, this time India lifted the mega event and became the champions for the second time in their history.
After Australia’s ouster from the mega event it was time to introduce radical changes in the team to prevent further humiliation in a game which had been dominated by the Aussies for more than a decade.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/MJ-Clarke-c1978 was promoted as the captain of the national team.
While Clarke was given the realms of the one-day and Test squad, Cameron White was named as the skipper of the Twenty20 outfit because of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Clarke-c51120’s retirement from that format of the game.
Finally with all the changes done, it was now time for Australia to test their mettle against Sri Lanka, a team that had reached the final of the mega event where they lost to http://www.senore.com/Cricket/India-c750.
This was obviously a defining moment for Clarke to prove to the world that he was ready to lead the Australians into a new era in modern-day cricket.
Things are finally rolling in Australia’s favour and if they continue playing the way they are right now, the former alphas of the game will rise to their former glory.
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