“They say the darkest hour is right before the dawn,
And in the hour of greatest slaughter, the great avenger is being born”
Paul Kelly, “Bradman”
In 1928 an English cricket team led by the great batsman Wally Hammond, arrived in Australia and slaughtered the locals in a one-sided Test series. Hammond and his English gentlemen disposed of a hapless Australian team, 4 Tests to 1 in a terribly lopsided contest, winning the Ashes and leaving Australian fans wondering where the next series win would come from and who the great saviour of Australian cricket may be.
Little did they know that a great champion was already among them, playing his first Test match in the aforementioned series, struggling to get traction but eventually making a couple of decent scores in a dismal performance by the local side. But any hint of the greatness which would follow was lost in the debacle in which the Australian team found itself embroiled.
As it was eloquently put in Paul Kelly’s marvellous biographical song, “The Great Avenger” was Donald George Bradman and in England in 1930 he would put things to rights, playing the greatest season in the history of Test cricket, creating his own legend and leaving the over confident Englishmen floundering in defeat with no idea of how to handle the phenomenon which had descended upon them.
Apart from the blight of the Bodyline series of 1932/33, Australia remained undefeated while Bradman strode the stage like a giant, with the mere mortals of the game simple bystanders as he carved out the greatest career of any Test batsman. The greatest by a long chalk.
Fast forward to 2013 and once more we have a team of English gentlemen touring our land, Ashes safely in hand, arrogance high, expectations brimming, fully expecting to slay the local lads as they have done for the past three Ashes series. The depredations forced upon them by the last generation of Australian cricketers, the denizens of a golden era, quickly being forgotten as they make a niche for themselves in the history of this great sporting contest. The poms are on top and they are not letting us forget it!
They say the darkest hour is right before the dawn. In the hour of greatest slaughter, has our “Great Avenger” been born? Not likely but we live in hope.
It’s been an insipid era for Australian cricket. Poor leadership, indiscipline, lack of talent. All these things are blighting the game in this nation, while simultaneously fighting off challenges from all four football codes who seek to ensure the best athletic talent in the country is funnelled into their own games, along with sponsorship money,crowds and television rights. Sad days indeed when a game which is embedded so deeply into the cultural DNA of this nation is struggling so badly.
The Australian team has lost seven of it’s last nine Test matches and confidence that they can match the English on the sun-baked grounds of their native land is at an all time low. Things haven’t been this bad since the mid-1980’s!
However, a pin prick of light may be piercing the gloom and when all is said and done the darkness laying like a carpet over the Australian cricketing landscape maybe thinning. A little.
Australian cricket has lost it’s way over the last five years but it is not a situation that will be allowed to continue for long. Continual defeat has sharpened the claws of those who have fought tooth and nail for the country on sanguine fields and won great honour and victories against the odds. Men who have worn the famous Baggy Green Cap in the past and played their hearts out while wearing it are calling for change and the ship may just be turning a little; enough to miss the next iceberg in any case.
With a decent coach who is schooled well in the old ways the team looks more disciplined at least and the insipid young batsmen who look out of their depth at international level may yet emerge as champions under the new regime. I think the talent is there. It needs to be nurtured.
We probably won’t win this looming Test series. In fact we are likely to be defeated handily by a very good English team. But they say the darkest hour is right before the dawn. And while no “Great Avenger” is likely to be born in this series, the rumblings of a revival are being heard.
England 2017? An aging English team ripe for the picking? A young and hungry Australian team which will put things to right once more? The Ashes back with their rightful owners? As an Australian fan, I can only hope.
But I will stay loyal to my team and my nation and live and die on every ball of this Test series. And all Australian fans like me will wait with baited breath for the revival of our one true national game. Bring it on!
Have a nice day.
Strange Notations From a Laborious Life 