Australia squad on noticehttp://www.foxsports.com.au/story/0,8659,24678160-23212,00.html?from=public_rssTHE Australian team is on notice. There is an immediate need for Ricky Ponting and his men to reconnect with the true followers of the game in this country and regain their respect.
For all their success of recent years, the elite of Australian cricket lost the support of much of their constituency last season.
Don't forget that the summer of cricket continues on foxsports.com.au with live text blogs and scoreboards, plus two hour highlights every night on Fox Sports throughout the New Zealand and South Africa series.
Young and old and especially former first-class and Test players were saddened if not sickened by the boorishness and triumphalism of the Australians against an admirable if pesky opponent from India.
The Australian people have made it patently clear they expect much more of their finest cricketers.
If it didn't sound so much like the tiresome spin coming from Cricket Australia nowadays, it could be said that Ponting and company need to undertake a charm offensive this summer against New Zealand and South Africa.
Anathema it may be to the hard-nosed Australian pros, but success in these series should be seen as nothing more than a handy bonus leading into tours of South Africa and England.
First and foremost they must emerge from the bubble in which most reside, look their critics in the eye, concede they do, like the rest of us, make mistakes, and set about advancing Australia fair.
The recent and significantly unsuccessful tour of India provided something of a reality check. After all, Australia has played six Test matches against India since the game was so seriously damaged in that tumultuous and ugly affair in Sydney in January and not won one of them. More significantly it has lost three.
Surely these cold stats are telling the players something.
If Ponting and company believed their lengthy winter leave period after the tour of the West Indies would assuage the Australian people, they are wrong. It remains an issue they must confront and they can start at the Gabba.
And if the summer of atonement was meant to start in India last month all went dreadfully awry. For an outfit that has long trumpeted its professionalism and capacity to lift the bar to dizzying heights, this was a very unhappy and, at times, unprofessional exercise.
Nor was the lack of professionalism confined to events in the middle, where Ponting was overwhelmed by the biggest challenges he has faced on the field since Glenn McGrath trod on that confounded Duke ball in England in 2005.
Despite the largest support staff assembled for a tour of the Indian sub-continent - 14 were enlisted at various times and nine were on duty all of the time - the Australians were never in the hunt after failing to press home an advantage on the final day of the first Test in Bangalore.
Why Simon Katich didn't get a bowl that day still rankles.
AuthorTopic: Aus V NZ First Test @Brisbane - Match Thread (Read 3563 times)
