Ian Dargie
Premiership Player
- Joined
- Jun 14, 2011
- Posts
- 4,838
- Reaction score
- 1,512
- AFL Club
- West Coast
- Banned
- #1
For mine there are two parts to it.
The first is that few people saw it coming, certainly not to the extent that Australia would be
4-0 up going to Sydney. Before the series, England had every right to be favourites and their fans and their press had every right to be confident.
Look back at this commentary from the Daily Mail after the first day in Brisbane: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/cr...d-demonstrates-gulf-teams--Martin-Samuel.html
So the fact that this Australian side, which I still think is a pretty long way short of South Africa, has absolutely taken England apart is amazing. They've done it on the back of some excellent fast bowling and spreading the load with the bat. Most importantly, they've done it through a team ethic of discipline and aggression. They've got right in England's face throughout and the tourists have rolled over despite having, on paper, a more accomplished group of players. I find that infinitely more satisfying than the 2006-07 series, when Australia's clearly superior team beat an England side that was out of its depth. And this series has been even more one-sided. It's been a demolition job, a hiding that should sting long after they depart and hopefully damages the mechanisms that would normally allow them to bounce back. They've got exactly what they deserved.
That brings me to the second part.
Because England arrived as favourites, confident of winning a fourth straight Ashes series, only to have their legs kicked out from under them, we've had the full spectrum of England's psyche on display: it starts with over-the-top hubris and exaggerated confidence instilled by moderate success and ends with the team showing zero backbone when properly challenged and their erstwhile cheerleaders wailing and gnashing their teeth after their earlier smugness has blown up in their face. That's the English way.
Don't get me wrong. Australians can be over-confident as well. But that was mostly when we had one of the greatest ever sides. In short, it was justified. In England's case, as we've seen, that smugness was not justified. On the flipside, Australia have also endured their fair share of losses recently and the reactions have sometimes been pretty ugly. So England are not alone in the bitterness of their recriminations. It is rare, though, that the pendulum swings so violently in the space of one tour and that's what's been so delicious: that England's cockiness has defeated them, that their little strut Down Under has ended up in abject humiliation.
Remember the Daily Mail headline about the "gulf between the teams"? Well, here we are six weeks later: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/cr...l-batting-collapses-add-misery-thrashing.html. In their words: "Pathetic!" Looks like we've come full circle.
Three years ago Swann was doing a Sprinkler Dance. Now he's been smashed into retirement. That's how it ends, champ.
In short, it's a thumbnail sketch of everything Australians think is messed up with English cricket - by turns self-congratulatory but then very quickly soft and whiney. When they're quite good, they get carried away. When seriously challenged, they shit their pants. When they lose, they shit them again and complain about the nasty Australians. There's no doubt that the tables will turn down the road. But even in the event that England win the next Ashes or the one after, it's for these reasons that they will still invite the contempt that has been so gloriously vindicated this series.
The first is that few people saw it coming, certainly not to the extent that Australia would be
4-0 up going to Sydney. Before the series, England had every right to be favourites and their fans and their press had every right to be confident.
Look back at this commentary from the Daily Mail after the first day in Brisbane: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/cr...d-demonstrates-gulf-teams--Martin-Samuel.html
So the fact that this Australian side, which I still think is a pretty long way short of South Africa, has absolutely taken England apart is amazing. They've done it on the back of some excellent fast bowling and spreading the load with the bat. Most importantly, they've done it through a team ethic of discipline and aggression. They've got right in England's face throughout and the tourists have rolled over despite having, on paper, a more accomplished group of players. I find that infinitely more satisfying than the 2006-07 series, when Australia's clearly superior team beat an England side that was out of its depth. And this series has been even more one-sided. It's been a demolition job, a hiding that should sting long after they depart and hopefully damages the mechanisms that would normally allow them to bounce back. They've got exactly what they deserved.
That brings me to the second part.
Because England arrived as favourites, confident of winning a fourth straight Ashes series, only to have their legs kicked out from under them, we've had the full spectrum of England's psyche on display: it starts with over-the-top hubris and exaggerated confidence instilled by moderate success and ends with the team showing zero backbone when properly challenged and their erstwhile cheerleaders wailing and gnashing their teeth after their earlier smugness has blown up in their face. That's the English way.
Don't get me wrong. Australians can be over-confident as well. But that was mostly when we had one of the greatest ever sides. In short, it was justified. In England's case, as we've seen, that smugness was not justified. On the flipside, Australia have also endured their fair share of losses recently and the reactions have sometimes been pretty ugly. So England are not alone in the bitterness of their recriminations. It is rare, though, that the pendulum swings so violently in the space of one tour and that's what's been so delicious: that England's cockiness has defeated them, that their little strut Down Under has ended up in abject humiliation.
Remember the Daily Mail headline about the "gulf between the teams"? Well, here we are six weeks later: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/cr...l-batting-collapses-add-misery-thrashing.html. In their words: "Pathetic!" Looks like we've come full circle.
Three years ago Swann was doing a Sprinkler Dance. Now he's been smashed into retirement. That's how it ends, champ.
In short, it's a thumbnail sketch of everything Australians think is messed up with English cricket - by turns self-congratulatory but then very quickly soft and whiney. When they're quite good, they get carried away. When seriously challenged, they shit their pants. When they lose, they shit them again and complain about the nasty Australians. There's no doubt that the tables will turn down the road. But even in the event that England win the next Ashes or the one after, it's for these reasons that they will still invite the contempt that has been so gloriously vindicated this series.
