1 post tagged “australia”
Much has been written and said in recent times about Australia's dominance of world cricket.
Smaller crowds than expected in Brisbane and Hobart have fuelled the debate.
It wasn't that long ago that Australia amassed a world record 16 consecutive victories under Steve Waugh's leadership, eclipsing the previous best of 11 by the great Clive Lloyd-led West Indian side of the mid 1980s.
The current Australian team is aiming to set a new benchmark for sustained excellence.
A 2-nil sweep of the series against Sri Lanka has seen the world champions their 14th consecutive win.
Part of the current streak encompasses the team's historic 5-nil whitewash in last summer's Ashes series.
Australia's last Test series loss on home soil was against the West Indies in 1992/93.
Since then, Australia has played 26 opponents at home without a series loss.
Earlier this year, the Australian one-day team made history by becoming the first outfit to win three consecutive World Cups.
Under Ricky Ponting's stewardship, Australia has won 119 of its 154 matches, with a winning percentage of a stunning 77.3 percent.
In terms of prolonged success, the Australian team of the past dozen years is hard to beat.
They have set standards that many aspire to, but few, if any, can attain.
So, the question remains - is the Australian team's dominance killing the sport and turning the fans away?
History would contend that such a theory may be short-sighted.
The Chicago Bulls' demolition of every other team in the NBA when it had Michael Jordan at the helm provided the sport worldwide with its greatest ever fan base.
No matter where the Bulls played in the United States, they were the hottest ticket in town, despite the fact that they swept the floor with most of their opponents.
When Tiger Woods won four consecutive majors amongst his 13 to date, galleries were at record levels.
The winning streaks of the likes of Roger Federer, Pete Sampras and Martina Navratilova never seemed to have fans turning their back on Wimbledon because the result seemed pre-destined prior to a ball being served in anger.
It's too easy to say that this current Australian cricket team, through its dominance, is killing interest in the sport.
Wherever they travel in the world, they draw bigger crowds in both forms of the game than any other team, with the possible exception of an India-Pakistan series.
The crowds for the first three days of the Gabba Test earlier this month would have been near sell-outs at most English grounds.
Perhaps a little perspective is needed.
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