*Official* Australia in decline thread

[Swervy]

Wouldn't a more appropriate question, to most English-based people, be why are you so ridiculously biased against them?
Thing is, of course, we already know why.
Why do I have a slight favoritism to South Africans? Ah, that's simple - South Africa (in 1998) were the first team aside from England to captivate my attention to the World game.
Much like dear old Colin and his aussies.

I dont think I am biased against them!! I just dont think they are as good as people make out. They are a team which continually chokes under pressure, and even when they were supposedly at their best, they didnt have the balls to beat England when England were nigh on a laughing stock in world cricket.

In this game, you take your chances when you get them, otherwise you will always be considered not good enough

 

[C_C]

Speaking of balls, when was the last time IND lost to ENG ?

 

[Swervy]

If you seriously think that reputation doesn't influence the outcome of a game you're delusional.
If you "get dicked" as so ineloquently put it over a long period of time, indeed you are not good enough - but in a single series, especially in ODIs, results can show little about who the better team.

cut the BS Richard

 

[Neil Pickup]

Speaking of balls, when was the last time IND lost to ENG ?

Last September. Twice. Heavily.

 

[marc71178]

Or maybe you should be looking beyond results, because there are other things that determine how good a team is.

No, there are not.

 

[marc71178]

In Tests, indeed, they haven't performed much since the win in West Indies in 2000\01 - much to do with not having too many chances to do so.

So in the last 5 years they've not had many Tests then?

 

[marc71178]

No, one of (the, in fact) most overrated.

No, one of the all-time greats - FACT.

 

[marc71178]

Why do I have a slight favoritism to South Africans?

Do you understand the definition of slight?

 

[FaaipDeOiad]

The one including Maher, Hayden, Lee, Bichel, Harvey, Watson and Hauritz.

Maher certainly wasn't a bad player by any means. The fact that he played a relatively small number of matches says more about the class of Australia's batting than anything else.

Hayden averages in the 40s opening in ODIs, and to suggest that he is poor is idiotic.

Lee is a great ODI bowler, and any team to ever play ODIs would be better for having him in it.

Bichel is certainly not poor... he's a good bowler and a capable batsman, and was brilliant in the last world cup, where probably only Tendulkar kept him from man of the series honours.

Harvey, Watson and Hauritz aren't much good, but they aren't that much worse than plenty of other players going around either. That team might have been slightly weaker than the average Australian team in recent times, but it was certainly not "poor" by any stretch of any imagination except for yours.

 

[FaaipDeOiad]

I would personally pick him ahead of those 2.

McGrath and Murali are the best ODI bowlers in the world, for mine. McGrath's wicket taking power isn't far behind Lee's, and he concedes the best part of a run an over less. Lee is next, in my mind, ahead of the likes of Flintoff, Pollock, Vaas and Gillespie.

 

[FaaipDeOiad]

Cue Richard to say he was "just joking" like he did after he claimed Pakistan circa 1999 was a better test side than the 2002 Australians in 3, 2, 1...

 

[tooextracool]

In ODIs...
In winning The Standard Bank Cup.

oh yes, against kenya, and India, who were so brilliant during that series, that they lost to kenya.
if beating rubbish teams makes you a challenger to the best team in the world,then clearly its pretty easy.

and The VB Series in the same season,.

despite losing all but one game to australia....brilliant performance.

in beating Pakistan and Sri Lanka at home

what an achievement, beating 2 teams who are disgraceful away from home.

in having much the better of The TVS Cup,.

despite losing 1 game and winning 1?
and this remember was against an 'experimental' indian side that included gambhir, d.mongia, bangar, sarandeep singh & salvi.

in coming back from 2-0 down in Pakistan,.

yes perhaps their biggest achievement of the millenium.

in beating West Indies, in thrashing England and then thrashing West Indies..

wow what brilliant ODI sides.
england of course without flintoff, harmison, trescothick etc being clearly out of it.

lets look at some of the embarassments they've suffered along the way shall we?
lost 8-2 to australia(surprise surprise, they won the last dead rubber game)
couldnt beat SL in a single game in morocco
got embarassed and knocked out in the preliminary stages of their own world cup.
got humiliated by an english ODI side that include rikki clarke, anthony mcgrath, rob key, james troughton and james anderson
NZ wiped the floor with them in NZ.
then got whitewashed in SL.
and the lost to WI first round in the ICC trophy.

but im sure they underperformed in all those series.

 

[tooextracool]

One including Maher, Hayden, Lee, Bichel, Harvey, Watson and Hauritz.

which only shows how poor SA were.

 

[tooextracool]

Only times recently where they've underperformed have been against Australia (as England did 6 months before) and for a couple of series in New Zealand and at home to England.

you're absolutely right. i too thought that the 5-0 whitewash in SL was a very accurate potrayal of the difference in quality between the 2 teams.

 

[tooextracool]

And aside from those 5-fors he's done little.
And it may be convenient to take only from the start of 2004, but fact is it don't cut no mustard.
From 2003\04 is where I nominated.

since 2003
filtered 57 457.5 2070 76 5/32 5/41 27.23 4.52 36.1 0 2

 

[tooextracool]

Lee??? One of the best ODI bowlers of all time!!!!

thats taking it just a little too far.

 

[Swervy]

thats taking it just a little too far.

well certainly one of the most dangerous weapons bowling wise I have seen in ODI

 

[aussie]

The one including Maher, Hayden, Lee, Bichel, Harvey, Watson and Hauritz.

so what made that side so bad??????

 

[luckyeddie]

well certainly one of the most dangerous weapons bowling wise I have seen in ODI

Bad breath?

 

[age_master]

thats taking it just a little too far.

if he keeps going at his current rate he will, let alone i would say that he has alot of improving to do.