However, I usually keep my personal opinions, well...personal (haha, that's crap - I didn't even believe it as I was writing it). I rarely keep my opinions to myself and today they turn to the Australian professional cricket community - or as I now like to refer to them, the 'self deluders'.....
The utter train wreck that was this Ashes series will long be burnt into Australia's psyche. For many of us, this was the first time we have suffered such a globally public and shameful 'pantsing', and worst of all it comes at the hands of the old enemy. With the complete and remorseless dismantling of our cricket credentials, England can now rightfully turn its attention to worthy opponents such as India and South Africa who will at least test their mettle.
England is afforded that luxury because they follow the most basic rules of excellence, which include; set challenging goals, self awareness is a virtue, learn from those doing it better (or best) and success only resides in a place where accountability also exists.
For Australia's part, we are working to a different rule book....Cricket Australia, the selectors and the players seem to live on Delusion St.
Rather than Australia nobly coming clean with its public and saying, "look, we are know we are not very good at the moment, we are rebuilding and we are going to try some new strategies and some new players and this may or may not work" they continue to push the, "we trained hard and think we can turn it around at the...(insert name of ashes graveyard venue here)....
Australia must be close to a world ranking below #5. We must come clean with ourselves. We are a very ordinary cricket team. There is some chance we will not win a test (let alone a series) for quite some time, years perhaps, given we have the top 3 teams next on the calendar, AND it will get worse before it gets better. Cricket Australia should remove all of the trophies in their foyer of their Jolimont office and stop talking about the McGrath, Warne, Waugh era. It's gone. GONE!
I have a friend in the my office who finishes every debate on AFL football by saying '16 premierships' about his beloved Carlton. But like our cricket community this cry for past glory actually holds success back. England has shown that records can tumble very quickly. Our successful recent past will quickly fade into pleasant memory but will be a continued reminder of how far we have fallen.
Nobody, least of all me, can say for certain how we have gone from the greatest of all time to pretty awful, so quickly. However if England could move on up from the basement to the penthouse of world sport, to be a genuine leader in just about everything they compete in, we sure as hell can.
It's time for Cricket Australia to put a ban on peripheral activity....IPL, television commercials, et al...for Australian players who are under performing. Great financial success should be a reward for excellence rather than the consolation of mediocrity.
right, time to watch some tennis....
