The caption of the article in the Indian Express says:
Aus lack the edge without aggression: Warne
(http://www.indianexpress.com/printerFriendly/264297.html)
Posted online: Tuesday, January 22, 2008 at 1434 hrs IST
Melbourne, January 22:
"Legendary leg-spinner Shane Warne has said Australia cared too much about their image in the Perth cricket Test and lost the edge without their trademark aggression.
"Warne said the main weapon for Australia was their aggressive body language on the field and by being careful of their conduct after the Sydney fiasco they found it difficult to curb the Indians.
"There have been some suggestions that Australia lost their edge and were too concerned about their image going into Perth. Sport is about passion and attitude and knowing yourself. Australia play best when they get in the face of the opposition and are very aggressive," Warne wrote in his column for The Daily Telegraph.
There, the cat is out of the bag. Thanks, Warne, for your admission that Australian cricket thrives not due to the cricketing skills of the players but due to their "aggressive" behaviour (read provocative, abusive, intimidatory, insulting behaviour) on the field. On the face of it, they are "aggressive" against the opposing team, but in reality, the umpires sub-consciously fall prey to this provocative, intimidatory behaviour, and tend to rule more in favour of these street bullies than the opponents. This is more so in the case of the Third (TV) Umpire who is an Australian who most often rules against the opponents; the most recent case is when Bruce Oxenford ruled Symonds not out to a stumping appeal in the second Test at Sydney when the entire commentator fraternity of the world, including Aussie commentators, were of one mind in declaring him out.
What is this "aggressive" attitude that Shane Warne is talking about? There is a very sad report in the Sydney Morning Herald about how this is poisoning the young minds of Australia.
Badmouthing's best sharpen their tongues in junior
January 12, 2008
"If you think the on-field behaviour of Australia's Test cricketers is bad, consider the following.
"t was a Green Shield match for under 16s between Manly and Fairfield-Liverpool last weekend. Manly's ninth wicket had just fallen. As their last batsman prepared to make his way to the crease, one of the Fairfield-Liverpool players left the other fieldsmen to run over to the gate to meet him. Former Test player Peter Philpott, who happened to be Manly's coach, described what happened next.
"As the batsman walked out, this other kid walked along with him, verbalising him all the way from the gate to the wicket," he said. "The batsman was a 12-year-old kid, and the player verbalising him was a big, strong 15- or 16-year-old.The boy tried to avoid him, but the big bloke kept walking around him, so he could keep hammering in his ear."
"Philpott thought he had seen everything, but this incident broke new ground. It showed you no longer had to wait for a batsman to arrive at the crease before sledging him; you could start as soon as he set foot on the field.
"Philpott belongs to a generation of cricketers who regard sledging as the worst of evils. He played his last Test in 1966 when sledging was not an issue."
Isn't it great how the teenage Aussie cricketers are groomed first into sledging techniques!! The next thing the Aussies will device is to prepare a special training programme to be played to every Aussie pregnant woman regularly so that the foetuses in their wombs will absorb all that is needed and come out fully prepared to take on the world. How great!!
Chief of Cricket Australia, Sutherland, says this is how Australia has always played their game right from the beginning, and he defends their horrid behaviour. Don Bradman must be turning in his grave many times over on hearing this. What a shame!!
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