The New Nation - Internet Edition

It was not expected to happen but it happened in reality. Australia, the ODI WC champion, has lost the final to India in the CB Tri-Series held in Australia and that too in a very off-colour fashion. That is the reality the once mighty Australians have fallen flat in the just ended Tri-Series.

We congratulate Dhoni's Boys for their big wins. Hope they will not over cook the victory in joys and celebrations.

But the big question is, what went wrong with the Australians or Pointing & Co? Were they too tired of too many games the year around or it is the age of the big boys (currently average age of the Team Australia is much higher than any ODI team) or they have lost the moral ground or their performance level has suddenly slided down ?

We think it is combination of all those things together. However, the Australian mindset is the root or prime cause of this setback they suffered.

When they went down to Bangladesh at Lords first they said that it was a mere accident. But that was the beginning of the end. Thereafter, the Australian tasted many a defeat. On winning the WC-2006 they developed the bad psyche and preferred slang over cricket.

Often they were involved in such 'non-cricketing' behaviour like the Harbhajan fued-which is not at all needed for a team like Australia.

Here the role of Cricket Australia is rather poor.

Cricket Australia simply failed to control Ponting's guys to behave in good manner in and off the ground. That lowered the level of team discipline and the ultimate happened in the end.

We hope Ponting, as Captain, shall give a serious soul-searching to come to sense. The sooner he does it, it will be better for the World Cricket. On Cricket Australia side, they should play cricket, not slang.

Abu Musa Miah

Lalbagh, Dhaka.