AS MUCH AS WE might detest their devotion to sledging – “mental disintegration”, their former captain Steve Waugh called it – and their strutting conceit, Australia are demonstrably One-Day International cricket’s mightiest team at present, fit to rank alongside even the mighty West Indies three decades earlier.
They have always played their cricket, and their several other strong sporting disciplines, hard, with no quarter given, no quarter expected.
Their attitude is that they are not in a popularity contest but are there to win, the purpose of any contest.
Their clinical dismantling of defending champions India in yesterday’s World Cup semi-final in Sydney once again proved their pre-eminence.
It was even achieved without a hint of sledging; the only disintegration as India’s demanding target of 329 drifted out of sight was to the stumps by deadly accurate bowlers of genuine pace and fielders with laser-like throws.
Please read the full story in today’s Weekend Nation, or in the eNATION edition.
