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Touchline • Issue 15 • 33
time and got detention. Privately, he must be fuming. Imagine
asking Merv Hughes or Shane Warne in their pomp to make
a powerpoint presentation on what they brought to the team.
Their presentation would probably have involved a middle
finger and a few choice words about where they could put their
assignment.
Of course, the Shane Watson affair is more complicated than
the first reports suggested. There have been frequent incidents
where players have not been sufficiently on-board with what
being an Australian test international means. Standards are
slipping. But surely the pride of representing Australia carries
over into fulfilling all the roles of a
national idol.
There seems to be a very different
character in the national team now
than in the past. In an article from
2009, Malcolm Knox had some insights
into the new generation of Australian
cricketers.
When the players that have become
known as a golden generation -like
Steve Waugh and Glenn MacGrath-
were coming through, they learned
their trade in grade cricket. Talented
boys would play against men, and in
grade cricket they certainly did their best to teach the up-starts
some humility. Today, early identification and the rise of cricket
academies have resulted in talented players being fast-tracked,
avoiding this vital apprenticeship.
In the article, former Australian cricketer Adam Gilchrist, when
pressed on the subject “says he does not know how this cultural
change - a kind of hothousing, or early-life specialisation - will
ultimately affect Australian sporting standards.”
Clearly he now has his answer.
Australia has seen its sporting pedigree slipping for some time.
It used to dominate the pool, the tennis court, the rugby and
hockey field. If the Ashes in 2005 were the beginning of the
end, then it is now eight years in with no sign of hope for the
immediate future.
To forge an end to Australia’s sporting malaise, we should come
to terms with the causes.
One of the most popular theories is that the individual seems
to have superseded the collective. Many of Australia’s greatest
triumphs have been in team sports, where players bleed
themselves white for their team-mates. Even in individual
sports like tennis and swimming, the athletes relied on their
coaches and peers far more than they do today. Now, corporate
sponsorship isolates players, so that instead of being surrounded
by peers, they are cut off; their attention seized by their
model girlfriend, the design of the next sleeve tattoo or their
endorsement of a deodorant.
The team has become the vase that helps them showcases their
individual brilliance. They need the team, but only in terms of
what it can do for them. The recent events in India seem to
support this argument, but another more salient example was the
scandal surrounding the Olympic swimming team. Allegations of
bullying and victimization were termed
“toxic” by insiders, and suggest that
the team mentality had given way to a
pack mentality.
Another theory is simply that the world
is catching up to Australia. Contrary to
the national legend, there is nothing
particularly special about Australians.
There is nothing in the water that
makes them grow bigger and stronger,
the air they breathe is not full of
some potency drug. They do not have
a naturally divine right to sporting
dominance. Simply put, they had the
resources to put them on top.
It is estimated that Britain’s Olympic team received four times
as much financial support than did Australia’s. The Australian
Institute of Sport was ground breaking, and appeared just after
our sporting nose-dive in the 1970s. Science was married to
sport in the Canberra-based centre, and the training regimes
afforded to its –mainly Olympic- students made them the best
in the world. Sports science in other countries has caught up,
not least because of how generous Australia became with its
methodology in the 1990s. They sent coaches all over the world,
and in hindsight it feels a little patronizing. Things were getting
too easy, so they thought they would give the world a leg up.
There are many other issues at play. While Australia is still
technically a very active nation, people are being drawn towards
extreme sports, where personal bests are replacing playing for
the team. Lives are busier, so being able to commit to a team
sport is not as easy as it was. Some even argue that the success
of Aussie Rules is funneling our best athletes into a sport that
has no international standing.
The question now remains. Is this a cycle, or a hill? Will Australia
become a great sporting nation through luck or strategy? The
nation’s self esteem depends on it.
Standards are slipping.
But surely the pride of
representing Australia
carries over into
fulfilling all the roles of
a national idol.”