da doce： Michael Clarke does not think Australian cricket is in crisis, but therecan be no other description after what has happened over the past sevenweeks
Peter English at the SCG07-Jan-2011
A familiar pose over the past two years, starting with a home defeat to South Africa and continuing with losses to England, India, a draw with Pakistan, and now this•Getty Images
Michael Clarke does not think Australian cricket is in crisis, but therecan be no other description after what has happened over the past sevenweeks. The elite game in the country has collapsed on and off the fieldduring a record Ashes thrashing, from coaching and selection to moremundane matters like batting and bowling.Despite all of this James Sutherland, the chief executive, is happy withthe head coach, the selectors and the players – just not the result.Andrew Hilditch, the chairman of selectors, is not resigning and ispleased with the form of the four decision makers. “I think we’ve done avery good job as a selection panel, but the reality is we were totallyout-played,” he said. He was being serious.Tim Nielsen, the coach, was reasonable enough to avoid praising himselfand settled on saying that he had tried his best. Nobody has been accusedof not trying, just of not being very good, or doing the right things. Yetnobody is resigning and nobody is being sacked.All the onwards-and-upwards generals are talking about moving forward, butthey have to hope Australia have hit the bottom first. Hilditch said theteam’s next two Test tours, against Sri Lanka and South Africa later inthe year, would be even tougher than this one. His contract is up afterthe World Cup and it would be a sensible time to resign.The three innings defeats have given Australia their worst thrashing ofany series. Twenty-four years ago, when England last raised the urn here,the hosts were also in crisis. On that occasion it was due to theaftermath of the Lillee-Marsh-Chappell retirements and the exits of therebels to South Africa. Everybody knew it was the worst of times.This time the Test team was at full-strength and the result was evenworse. Australia started the series as favourites but when the end came atthe SCG, in front of a bouncing Barmy Army, England finished with a 3-1victory. The innings-and-83-run triumph reverberated as much as thesinging of the tourists.For the Australians in the middle, it was a time to look at the ground.The pose has been a familiar one over the past two years, starting with ahome defeat to South Africa and continuing with losses to England, India,a draw with Pakistan, and now this.”I don’t think there’s a crisis in Australian cricket at all,” Clarke saidfirmly. He was in a difficult position as the stand-in captain followinghis first Test in charge. The Ashes were gone before he had stepped intoRicky Ponting’s shoes and his men did no better or worse than in the twoother defeats.”We need a lot of improvement in our game in all areas,” Clarke said. “ButI do believe we have the talent and potential in that change room to doit. We’ve seen through this series that guys have stood up at differenttimes, but we’re way too inconsistent to win a big series.”Like “disappointed”, “improvement” is another word that drops off thetongues of beaten Aussies. Nielsen, in particular, uses it a lot,especially over the past year. When asked, given the number of poor seriessince the 2009 Ashes loss, which of his players had improved over the pastsix months he took a long pause.”It depends on how you measure improvement,” he said. “If we sit back andlook at the series results it would be easy to say none of us have.” Afteroutlining the team’s trouble with “adjusting to game situations”, henominated Michael Hussey, Shane Watson and Peter Siddle as ones who hadimproved.Seventeen players were used in this series and only three of theAustralians were worthy of mention. Ryan Harris, who is now injured, wasthe only other one who deserved to be included in that tiny group. It isnot a glowing endorsement of the players or the coaching staff.So what should happen at the end of a non-crisis? Cricket Australia isplanning a review, which it does annually anyway, and Sutherland saidnothing should be discounted, even though he has faith in all the major departments. Unlike an Australian batting collapse, thepost-mortem won’t happen quickly. A structure has to be determined and ithas to be ratified by the board.”I’m firmly of the view that you can’t expect to get back on top by doingthe same things and just simply plugging away,” Sutherland said. “You haveto look at where you’re up to, how things are delivered and your approach,and that will certainly be part of a review that will happen in the comingweeks.”Clarke said the team was “as close to rock bottom as it gets”, but if heis asked to contribute to the review he will counsel against mass changes.”We’ve got to become better players, we’ve got to become a better team.”The answer nobody could give was how it would happen.Before all that there is the World Cup, in which Australia are defendingchampions. Ponting will be back from his broken finger to aim for a fourthconsecutive trophy. However, Hilditch wouldn’t endorse him as the Testleader for their next series against Sri Lanka in August. “I wouldn’t beblaming the captain [for the Ashes result],” Hilditch said. “They playedbetter than us. Unfortunately people have to accept that’s just whathappened.”Hilditch answered casually when asked how much of the result was hisfault. “I take responsibility for doing the best job I can possible forAustralian cricket,” he said. “It’s what I’ve always done, I have a greatpassion for it and still want to do it. I’m sure we’ll get through thisstage.”Despite admitting they were out-bowled, out-batted and out-thought,Cricket Australia’s top employees can’t bring themselves to say they arein a crisis. Or apportion any blame for a summer filled with disasters. Itwould be funny if it wasn’t so serious.