Australian quick Mitchell Stark in action in a recent test match against India
“In affectionate remembrance of English cricket which died at The Oval, 29th August, 1882. Deeply lamented by a large circle of sorrowing friends and acquaintances. RIP. NB. The body will be cremated and the Ashes taken to Australia.”
Australia’s first victory on the Mother country’s home soil over a full strength English side on August 29, 1882, inspired young London journalist Reginald Shirley Brooks to scribe these famous words in his mock obituary. It appeared in the Sporting Times, a weekly British newspaper chiefly devoted to sport on the 2nd September 1882.
It is widely believed that three women from Melbourne’s outer suburbs presented to the touring English captain an urn filled with the ashes of a burnt bail later that year when England regained the Ashes for the first time.
Now it could be written: “In affectionate remembrance of Australian cricket which has been suffering from a terminal illness these past few years and finally passed away without a whimper at Bristol, 24 June, 2013. RIP the body will be cremated and handed to the Marylebone Cricket Club on a golden platter.”
Many of us will remember and yearn for a return to the glory days:
When Rick McCosker’s jaw was broken in the Centenary Test in Melbourne in 1977 and he returned to the crease and with a bandage wrapped about his face, continued to bat and helped Australia win the test against the old enemy.
When Kim Hughes broke down and wept uncontrollably as he resigned the position of Australian Cricket Captain because he felt he wasn’t doing the job justice.
When Stephen Waugh saved a test match and made a test “ton” on one leg, collapsing from near exhaustion at the SCG.
When Dean Jones threw up and was in utter distress but continued to bat and eventually scored a double hundred to tie a test in India.
And when a young David Hookes smashed Tony Greig all over the MCG and then defiantly taunted the South African born English Captain.
What would former captains and greats of the modern era – the likes of Ian and Greg Chappell, Alan Border, Mark Taylor and Stephen Waugh- really be thinking now? Their legacy and the strength in which they left the game has slowly and surely been whittled away so that it now amounts to not much.
Is the “Don” turning in his grave? It’s probably just as well that many past greats of the game are no longer with us, for surely they would be bemused at the goings on of this bunch of current players and administrators.
A dozen or so petulant non performers are essentially holding the game to ransom in this country. Australia has been the leading light in International Cricket for nearly 150 years; now players realize they don’t have to perform or represent their country to the best of their ability. Now they can be a person of substandard performance on and off the field because they can literally earn millions of dollars in the glitzy wham-bam-thank-you scram world of the Indian Premier League.
Jackson Bird sceaming in at the Sri Lankan batsmen
Just three weeks out from the start of the first test of the 65th Ashes series between England and Australia at Trent Bridge we have sacked the coach that boldly took us where no coach has taken us before.
We have seen series whitewashes, a rotation policy that left our best players on the sidelines and the dropping of the vice-captain of the side only to re-instate him as captain a week later.
Then there’s homework gate, late night drinking incidents, the physical assault by one of our players on another country’s representative and players’ scathing and ribald comments directed at observers and fans of the game on social media.
Add to this that for the first time in our national sides history, we have a win/loss record that’s nothing to be proud of.
Since 1882, Australia has won the Ashes 31 times, England 28, 5 series being drawn. The Ashes are one of the longest, most evenly contested and best supported, sporting events in the world.
Australian Cricket is facing yet another crisis just three weeks out from the start of the first test.
It could be we have just burned the sport of cricket in Australia and handed the ashes to the Mother Country, perhaps never to really seriously challenge for the urn again.
If we are to whimper in embarrassment we should simply refuse to let our national team compete overseas until they can respect not just the sport but those that have come before them to make the sport what it is today.
