Waugh's men coming apart at the seams (23 May 1999)

23 May 1999

Waugh's men coming apart at the seams

Ian Chappell

The signs that everything was not well with the Australian side were evident in their opening game against Scotland - they stood out like Edinburgh Castle. There was the wayward bowling and sloppy fielding and, most surprising of all against such unheralded opponents, hesitant batting.

The batting improved on Thursday against New Zealand, but at the point where Australia normally pull away from their opponents when they are playing well, Steve Waugh's side fell in a hole in Cardiff.

Despite numerous attempts to clamber out of the well, the Australians eventually slipped back and, while they did not finish at the bottom, there must only have been a sliver of light visible when they looked up.

The defeat by New Zealand was bad enough - it would rank with a reversal against England in the eyes of most of the players - but it also involved a loss of aura, which means that opponents will suddenly see them as vulnerable.

As much as any skill, it is the aura around a top-class team that gets them home in a tight contest. The feeling that the opposition is nigh on invincible eventually weighs down the opposition, until they make mistakes under pressure and, before you know it, the myth has become reality and a team is invincible.

The Australians were in this mode in Pakistan in November and by the end of the Carlton and United one-day series in Australia they had England under the heel. But currently the supreme confidence is missing.

Steve Waugh has had two days to unearth the reasons and we will find out, when they meet Pakistan today, if he has solved the problem. Adding to the Australian captain's worries is the fact that Pakistan have not been idle since they received that thrashing nearly six months ago and, at the moment, they are playing confidently and are starting to build an aura of their own.

The reason for Australia's slump in form could be twofold. Firstly, they have played a lot of cricket and, if a team become unsure of themselves, staleness eats into the brain and this results in excuses being made at critical times, rather than efforts being doubled. Becoming jaded is a constant problem and the cure is to recognize the warning signals and immediately revise the schedule to recharge the batteries, rather than go on running them down.

Secondly, Australia have a tendency to bully opponents as much as they beat them and eventually, when someone stands up and resists, this tactic becomes a burden rather than a blessing. When Roger Twose raised his arms in triumph and punched the air as his crunching pull shot smacked into the boundary board, it was more than just the natural exuberance of a New Zealander experiencing victory over Australia.

Twose was also expressing his personal triumph over an opposition that had tried to make him knuckle under. Australia have to get back to out-thinking opponents, rather than out-muscling them.

Australia's problems are easily reversible if the will is there to change course quickly. There are batsmen making runs - the Waugh twins and Ricky Ponting and Darren Lehmann have all displayed good form in the tournament and at different times Damien Fleming, Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne have all bowled a good spell. The trick against Pakistan is to be more consistent and play as a team.

I would also make one change in personnel to accommodate a variation in tactics. McGrath is one of the best spearheads in the game and he must be given the new ball and used as the battering ram to break down the vulnerable Pakistan top order. This means Adam Dale becomes expendable and Paul Reiffel, a better bowler with the old ball, takes his place.

Australia desperately need to beat Pakistan because it is not merely enough to qualify for the Super Sixes, but it has to be a meaningful progression. Arriving at the next round without any points is fraught with danger when team three in Group B play their opposite number in Group A first up and this effectively assigns one of them to the World Cup scrap heap.

The competitive aspect of the Super Sixes could be improved if this meeting did not occur until the third round and A1 played B1 in the opening stanza, thereby increasing the incentive for the teams qualifying third.

In the past, the Australian team have shown great resilience and they have an opportunity to prove themselves once more. Their opponents today could provide the inspiration, as Pakistan played like drones early on in the 1992 World Cup, only to scrape into the semi-finals and ultimately clinch the trophy. Australia have the skill to repeat that performance but the question is, do they have the intelligence?

Source :: Electronic Telegraph (https://www.telegraph.co.uk)