Inverted snobbery, Aussie ishstyle

NAKED EYE

The Aussie way... Blow hot, hot, hot

While watching Mohd Asif and Mohd Sami destroy Australia on theopening day of the Sydney Test match, I said to myself - wow - these guyshave the Aussies on the rack. By bowling out the Aussies for a 127, itwas more or less certain that Pakistan would win the game. Think ofwhat it would do for the morale of the strife torn nation. Beating Australia inAustralia would be better and bigger than even winning the T 20 WorldCup in England last year. The swing and pace that the duo generatedset me thinking. It was like the old style demolition Derby by Pakistan pacebowlers. And then I saw Waqar Younis, the newly installed bowlingcoach sitting in the pavilion, obviously enjoying the predicament hisbowlers had put the Aussies in. I am sure Younis, one of the finestproponents of reverse swing must have had something to do with theperformance levels of the bowling combine. But Pakistan is notPakistan, but Panickistan on the cricket field these days. If there isone side which is more mercurial than South Africa, then it has to bePakistan. You never know what to expect from them. The next couple ofdays saw the script go according to the side's maverick andunpredictable nature. They simply self destructed. First they allowedPeter Siddle and Mike Hussey to build a huge partnership through acombination of dropped catches and perplexing field placements.Skipper Mohd Yousuf had eight boundary riders in an unexplicable fieldsetting which allowed Hussey to do pretty much as he pleased.
The momentum that Pakistan built up the previous day evaporated in notime. Okay, Yousuf is a novice, he doesn't comprehend the nuances ofcaptaincy, but coach Intikhab Alam and Waqar Younis also must have hadsome role to play in this shocking surrender. The Pakistan battersled by Salman Butt and Imran Farhat came out guns blazing wanting towrap up the game in next to no time. Aussies masters of the mentaldisintegration game exerted enough pressure to land the kayo punch onwhat was truly a Pakistani glass chin. Believe me, if the Aussies hadlost this Test match after Ricky Ponting opted to bat on a greensurface in the first essay, Ponting would have lost his captaincy. Twosuccessive Ashes losses in England, vanquishings against India, thetri series lost to England and India, a home series loss to SouthAfrica; Ponting is definitely under thecosh. Somehow or the other he manages to do a Houdini and escapesevery time. Look at England, no great shakes as a Test side, they havepulled off three great escapes in the last few games. Men like PaulCollingwood and Graham Onions have displayed hitherto unknown steelyresolve to stave off defeat. All Pakistan had needed to do was play thewaiting game, the runs would have come and the target of 176 wouldhave been surmounted.
Against that, they batted as if they had a deathwish. That Pakistanloss is unforgiveable, but that Pakistan lost an opportunity to knockthe arrogant Aussies off their lofty perch in their own backyard issingularly criminal. Not after gaining a handsome first innings lead.Australians practice a strange kind of inverse snobbery when it comesto cricket. That they have been so successful ever since the demise ofWest Indian cricket doesn't help one bit. You have to listen to theAussie commentators to understand how this inverse snobbery ispractised. Men like Mark Taylor, Michael Slater, Bill Lawry, IanHealy, Ian Chappell, Richie Benaud and the South African born, playedfor England,Australian resident Tony Grieg and Shane Warne to a much lesser extentbelieve that the Aussies just cannot lose. When Pakistan plays substandard cricket, it is pardonable, but the way the Aussies(commentators and writers) go about describing their opponents isshameful. That is why it is important for an India or South Africa or even anEngland to stand up every once in a while and show them their place.Agreed that Aussies play a brand of brash, tough and unyieldingvariety of cricket and they manage to play like that consistently, butin the recent past, they have shown that they are fallible.
South Africa thrashed them in Australia, as did England in Englandwhile we beat the pants off them the last time they were here to playa Test series. By using a strategy of reverse mental disintegration,India for one seems to succeed against Australia. One cannot back downagainst Australia, fire has to be met with fire. That is why it wasimportant to have Sunny Gavaskar and Ravi Shastri in the commentator'sbox along with the Aussies who I named earlier in this piece. Aussieshave to be shown their place on the cricket field. And off it. Yes, they have asystem which continues to throw up outstanding talent. Yes, they havea vast gene pool of cricketers as they have shown in the last couple ofyears, but like I said they can be defeated. Sides have to dominatethem not just in one series, but consistently over a couple ofseasons. India is the only side which has managed to do that over thelast decade or so. The gladiatorial contests have reached epicproportions, generating heat, dust and controversy. Indians certainlydon't lack self belief when they play the Aussies.
But back to poor, hapless Pakistan. It was at the same SCG many yearsago that Pakistan, always a side brimming with fine players first gavenotice that it could be a world beater. Imran Khan simply scythedthough the Aussies here in 1976/77 with a wonderful exhibition ofhostile bowling. Imran took 6 for 102 in the first innings to bowl outGreg Chappell'sAussies for 211. He was ably supported by Sarfaraz Nawaz. Just asAsif and Sami demolished the Aussies at Sydney last week. Pakistanthen went on to score 360 with Asif Iqbal playing the innings of hislife scoring 120 of those against Lillee, Walker and Gilmour. Butunlike the latest fiasco, Pakistan had Australia on the ropes in thesecond essay as well, Imran blowing them out of the water with 6-63.The Aussies could manage only180. Pakistan got the jitters then too, losing two wickets, but thetarget was a paltry 32 and they got home safely. I thought Pkaistan misseda golden opportunity to revitalise its cricket. Many moons ago,Pakistan and Imran had seeded their vaulting ambitions at the sameground. Imran became a deadly dangerous quick only after he discoveredhimself at Sydney in that famous Test match. Dissension is the biggestdowner for Pakistan cricket, everybody wants to be captain. Imran hadmanaged quell all rebellions, douse all the mutinous fires and build ateam of cricketers. That team was the dominant force of its time. Not that thisteam didn't have its problems, Javed Miandad for one was an enfantterrible, but Imran through sheer force of his personality and playingskills became the tallest leader in Pakistan cricket.
Now there will be inquisitions and recriminations all over again inPakistan cricket. After Yousuf's captaincy disaster, maybe even thecaptain will be changed. Off with the head is a call that you hearevery once in a while in Panickistan cricket. The call may emanatefrom within or it could come from the establishment that governs thegame, but the call will come. Make no mistake. Not after Yousuf'sbizarre field placings. Kamran Akmal is already facing the chop chopwith Sarfaraz having been airlifted from Pakistan. With Younis Khanhibernating, Shahid Afridinot playing Test cricket, Shoaib Malik ousted from the side; wonderwho will lead Pakistan next. They have a formidable pace attack inAsif, Sami, Umar Gul and Mohd Aamer, their batting of course is incomplete disarray, a leader may be able to lift them from this morass.It is important that Pakistan cricket revives itself, for Test cricketneeds another strong side. The inverted snobs in the Australiancricket team and the Channel Nine commentary team need to be taught aharsh lesson or two. For them it is not about a higher social class,it is about every other cricketing nation which appears to be inferiorto them. Actually when the West indies were the dominant force,cricket was bipolar to a great extent with the Aussies also having agreat side. But since the decline of West Indies, the Aussies havebeen trapezing around freely. However, ever since the Aussies havedominated, this snobbery is back and how. I remember when theAustralians beat India in 1969, they toured South Africa thinking theywere the strongest team on the planet. Bill Lawry's side got thehiding of its life.
It was billed as the clash of the titans. The verdict was 4-0 infavour of SA. The margin of victory was 170 runs, innings and 129runs, 307 runs and 323 runs. It was a shocking denouement ofAustralian supremacy. Ironically Ali Bacher's all conqueringSpringboks never played Test cricket after that. That was the lastofficials series before the wilderness. This was actually thestrongest team on the planet, but due to SA's apartheid policy, noneof them ever played Test cricket again. Imagine Barry Richards, GraemePollock, Mike Procter, Eddie Barlow, Lee Irvine, Peter Pollock, DennisLindsay and Tiger Lance in one team. All led astutely by Bacher. IfAustralian arrogance was ever punctured, it was in 1970.