Well done to the Aussie cricketers, they’ve won the world cup at home! An ACB strategy has come to fruition – we should all be glad.
But the question is, was the world cup a great spectacle, like it usually is? Certainly the new rules made the batting spectacular with heaps of runs and sixes being scored and then there were the tense moments and games such as the noble Black caps win over the crass (let’s have another drink) Aussies and the 20 minutes of torcher dished out by the Pakistani fast bowlers at Watson (if only they could field and catch the sitters!). The magical four centuries in a row by Sanga and the brilliant scores by AB, Gale and Guptil. It certainly had it’s fair share of cricketing excellence on the field.
But apart from the TV watchers, did anyone realise that the world cup was going on in Australia. There’s never been such a boring place to have a world cup than Australia. If not for the Sri Lankans and to some extent the Indians, it would have been such a flop.
Why, you ask
- The Aussies insulted their guests both on and off the field
- No one, but the Aussies, wanna play on the worst wickets in the world (thanks heavens there were some games in NZ!!)
- The locals are crass, racist and ignorant
- The hosting cities just didn’t ummmm. . . host!!
My judgement is based on Sydney, as I didn’t travel to any of the other games. So lets consider each point.
The Aussies insulted their guests both on and off the field.
As usual there was a fair share of sledging during the tournament by pretty much all teams, but only in games that involved Australia. It’s a cultural thing. Australians feel that sledging is mental toughness. Not unusual in the world of the Neanderthal. The rest of the world thinks otherwise.
The civilised behaviour of the Black Caps made the yobbo Aussie cricketers “uncomfortable” and “they deserved it“ apparently! So they decided to take it out in the only way they know how. That, in contrast to the impeccable behaviour of the black caps.
Then we had the media getting involved in insulting the most ardent of supporters. Comments about 7-11 store etc. I didn’t hear the joke – if you wake up in an Aussie hospital and you are surrounded by whities, get the hell out of there – it’s not a real hospital! The thing about those Indians at 7-11 stores is that 3-5 years later they are surgeons and engineers (doing the stuff that one really needs a skill to perform, where one can’t be put down as not having “soft” skills).
Darn good thing the Kiwis were co-hosts – at least the overseas guests had some hospitality.
No-one, but the Aussies, wanna play on the worst wickets in the world.
Without a doubt the wealth of Australia shows in the grand facilities available for sport. In some case Aussies feel the necessity for things “bigger and better” – it compensates for a deep rooted inferiority complex they have. But it is the lucky country. We get foreign companies to come and dig the earth and make money and leave some to us. That way we become rich – not dissimilar to the wealth of the Middle East, really. Except the wealth there goes far beyond money, to a rich culture and heritage.
The ACB’s strategy of bouncy pitches has served them well. Apart from a mishap (a Blue on Blue attack - to use a war time “caption” - aren’t we just great at using phrases such as Green on Blue to paint ourselves as superior to others?) that occurred at the beginning of the season, it all went well and the cup was won. One could say the mishap was mere “collateral damage” – the phrase we like to use when we blow up innocent women and kids to smithereens as we march on, un-phased, toward our ultimate goal of greed and controlling of wealth – securing our future, one might call it (and many do!!).
Cleverly, the drop in pitches in Sydney and in particular Melbourne (where the final was) were made more bouncy. Clearly, the Aussie pitches are outliers. Apart from perhaps the South Africans, the rest of the world really would have difficulty playing on them. Some would argue that there is a home advantage where ever the game is played. The reality is different. Most pitches around the world are converging. And whilst there will always be differences, teams have a much better chance of acclimatising elsewhere.
The locals are crass, racist and ignorant.
The Aussies love to look down upon the yanks as being insular, but there is no more an insular nation than Australia when it comes to most things and in particular cricket.
Most Aussies are totally ignorant on cricket, where their knowledge, at best, might extend to the most recent ashes series in Australia. This state of blissful ignorance together with an over inflated view of their own knowledge and their national sides capabilities often results in a rude shock when other teams of “unknowns” smack them in test series (such as the recent series against Pakistan). But unknown only to the Aussie.
Whilst they may be ignorant, there is a win-at-all-cost mentality and an archaic tribal sense to the support base. I attended a couple of games and on one occasion had an Aussie family with a couple of 11 or 12 year olds in front of us. Each time a boundary was scored by the Aussies, they would turn around and give the group behind us a “fist-up” – almost as if they had personally dealt a killer blow! And when they forgot to, there parents would instigate it – “give it to ‘em, mate!!”. Where the group behind, in particular the kids, would look at them quite alarmed. When it was the oppositions turn to smack the Aussies, the group behind would simply dance and cheer their team on! Wasn’t that a clash of cultures (well, I use the term loosely – fist-ups may be considered more un-cultured than cultured, by some!!).
It was a good thing that not many Aussies attended the games. Apart from the few Aussie games, the locals were simply not interested – a good thing for the supporters of other teams.
The host cities just didn’t host.
The cities were completely void of any World cup fever or atmosphere. Sydney just did there usual dreary grind. It was a stark contrast to the Olympics, where the city and the locals really did host the games.
I made the mistake of driving to the first game I attended. The SCG car park was full by the time I got there and it took me almost an hour to travel a short distance on ANZAC parade and get to the Fox studio car park. There was hardly a copper in sight. Not surprisingly I missed the first 45 minutes of the game! Getting out was an even bigger disaster – It was over an hour before we even moved a meter on the 4th floor of the car park. The only concession was that when we finally did get moving the car park attendants had been shelled with so much verbal abuse that they had left the gates open and disappeared! So we had free parking!
That experience was bad, but nothing compared to what occurred when we decided to take public transport. The websites had minimal information on how to use the public transport, although it was free if one had tickets to the game. It was on a week day, so we didn’t get to central station until about 4:30pm. There was absolutely no signage on where or how we were to get the free buses nor directions on how to get out of the station with the tickets for the game. In fact, one could say that if one walked into central, apart from the many people in supporter clothing, one would have been none the wiser that a world cup quarter final was on in the city and this was a key hub in the transport arrangements!
Finally a station attendant informed us that the special bus service had been discontinued and we had to use the standard bus services – he rattled off a series of bus route numbers – not one sign to be seen. No sign suggesting the best place to catch them.
Being familiar with the area (heaven help the foreign supporters), we were able to get to the bus stand. When a bus turned up, I asked if we could travel to the SCG on the bus and was rather rudely advised that it went to Moore Park. Fortunately, I did know where that was and got on. Clearly the bus driver was in no mood to be helpful.
Then someone else, who was clearly a foreigner asked the same question. The drivers response was “did you look at the other passengers, what do you think?”!! That’s crass Aussie hospitality at it’s best!
In general, most of the games lacked any atmosphere. The party was brought to the games by the Sri lankan and Indian supporters.The only Aussie contribution being the odd Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, Oy, Oy, Oy chant! Do Aussies really know how to enjoy themselves. Apart from drinking themselves silly and punching each other out and being rude or racist to others, there’s nothing much in the form of fun stuff!
Epilogue
Clearly World Cup 2015 won’t be remembered for the great atmosphere nor the hospitality of the hosts. There was some great cricket and some would remember it for the Aussies winning.
The decision for the Man of the tournament was debatable – could anything beat the spectacular run scoring of Sanga?!
BTW what happened to Warner. All that big mouthing before the tournament – did he play?!! Didn’t notice much being said about him!
Unfortunately Aussie sledging is proportionate to their ranking and climaxes when they are dominant (typical symptoms of bully-boys, really), so we are going to experience a few months of absolute crudeness until they play a respectable team on decent wickets.
So, that’s another world cup done and dusted! Here’s until the next one comes 4 years on! Hopefully, the ICC will think twice about ever bringing it back to Australia! Unfortunately money controls everything!
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