The Taming of the Aussies Sham Samaroo
Dec 30, 2008
Australia’s Ricky Ponting has come full circle in 2008 – from arrogance to humility – after the thrashing by South Africa in the 2nd test at the MCG. The defeat marks the first time in 16 years that the Australians have lost a home series, and it’s a humbling experience, long overdue, for the bullying, foul-mouthed, and conceited Aussies led by the supercilious Ponting.
Much like the ill-tempered, unruly vixen in Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew, for the last 15 years, the Aussies greeted everyone who came to play with an endless stream of thrash-talking and insults. In the Sydney test against India earlier this year, the Aussies’ atrocious conduct was condemned by their Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, and veteran, Neil Harvey, was moved to describe them as a pack of morons. But rather than see this as a wakeup call, the arrogant and conceited Ponting chose to turn his uncivil tongue on the much-respected Neil Harvey, one of Cricket Australia’s greatest living icon, to defend his version of the Aussie way. Australians were flabbergasted by Ponting’s remorseless outburst, and several former captains called for his sacking.
A few days later, India trounced the Aussies at Perth cracking their aura of invincibility. The cracks widened on Australia’s return visit later in 2008 when India inflicted upon them their 7th worst defeat in history beating them by 320 runs in the second test in Mohali before going on to win the series 2-0. Still, the arrogant Aussies would not relent. Upon their arrival back in Australia, Hayden shamelessly blamed their sorry individual performances, and the team’s humiliating defeat, on those annoying Third World countries. We are now at the end of 2008, and South Africa has meted out an unceremonious thrashing of the Aussies in their own den. A week ago, South Africa registered the 3rd highest successful run chase in history to win the first test at Adelaide. The Proteas then thumped the Aussies by 9 wickets in Perth to wrap up the series with one test still to go. In fact, the last time that Australia lost a home series, one must go back some 16 years to the 1992-93 series against the West Indies under the stewardship of then coach Rohan Kanhai. But even that was a close-fought series with the Windies winning by one run at Adelaide to tie the series 1-1. And then came that unforgettable performance by Curtly Ambrose in the fifth and final test when he grabbed 7 for 1 in a devastating spell at Perth to give the Windies a 2-1 series win.
In an exclusive interview in 2004, Ambrose told me that he rated that performance the greatest of his career. A performance that won him the man of the match award to go along with the ICC player of the year award. Some 16 years later, Dale Steyn does a Curtly Ambrose by winning the man of the match award for his match haul of 10 wickets to go along with his ICC test player of the year accolade. Since all of this took place at the Aussie fortress of Perth, one is tempted to ask Hayden whether he now believes that Australia has also become an annoying Third World nation?
It’s a measure of the contempt in which the present Aussies are held throughout the cricketing world that there isn’t a word of sympathy or regret for their fall from grace in 2008. Still, the Aussies might take comfort in knowing that everyone needs a humbling experience from time to time just to keep us from getting too big for our breeches. Ponting seemed to have finally gotten the point - well, perhaps, just a little. At the post game conference, he meekly submitted: "We deserved to be in this position and full marks to South Africa. They won very comfortably, a well deserved series win”.
Kudos Punter – a little humility is good for the soul.