End of the line?

The questions arise because this team isn’t young, and isn’t getting younger (see box). And their replacements are no spring chickens either; Bichel, who’s standing in for the regulars, is 33. So is this the end of the line, can other teams pop the champagne corks?

Yes, says cricket’s eminence grise Christopher Martin-Jenkins, the team is on its last legs. ‘‘Most members around right now won’t play the next World Cup (2007). That’s for sure. This may well have been the last hurrah for the best team since the 1980s West Indians. And though they have many superb players in reserve who are unlucky not to have played more, it must be a worry that the first lot of reserves are in their 30s rather than their early 20s.’’

Rubbish, says senior Aussie batsman Damien Martyn. ‘‘Steve Waugh is 38 and he’s playing fantastic cricket. It depends entirely on the individual and I don’t think many of us are even thinking of retirement. Matthew Hayden scored 380 and then came back to score another 100 in the next Test. He was completely fresh even after his 380. Some bodies last longer than others, and age shouldn’t be the thing. It depends on when you think you can’t play anymore.’’

One-day specialist Ian Harvey preferred to be more diplomatic. ‘‘You’re not going to know until it happens. It’s unlikely that all the seniors are going to go out in one go. We have good players at home who might not be as great as McGrath or Warne, but they are good. We’ll have to see how it goes from here on and see who comes back and who doesn’t.’’

Michael Bevan, probably the craftiest one-day player around, says though the team in India right now wears ‘‘holes’’, the back-up lot is strong enough to take over. ‘‘We’ve have had some members of the side missing at some stage or the other right through the past few years. But as you would have seen, the guys who have been picked have all been totally successful. It’s just that they have not been picked regularly.’’

The Australians are known to pick their players late, especially their batsmen. Case in point is Hayden, who returned to the side at 29 after being out in the cold for seven years. When he returned, he was an unknown quantity; in three years, he’s written his name in posterity.

It’s The System, which Andy Bichel points to. ‘‘See, our system is too good to allow a slump of huge proportions. Youngsters are tried out every once in a way and if we have managed to plug holes like Steve Waugh and Mark Waugh in the ODI side and Shane Warne over the last year, I am sure we can fill the other gaps. It’s happened before and the system will ensure there’s no problem.’’

Well, there was a problem at Gwalior on Sunday when the Aussies failed. A blip, perhaps, and you can be sure that sooner, rather than later, they’ll roar back. But the cracks showed through clearly.

Or go through the ‘extras’ column in the Kiwi match and captain Ricky Ponting’s praise for his bowlers seems more an attempt at encouraging them than an honest opinion. Bracken bowled only one wide, but Bichel sent in seven and Williams, despite picking up four wickets, bowled nine wides.

Believe in the system, insists British cricket writer Scyld Berry. ‘‘The Australians do seem concerned about the dearth of young cricketers, but if you follow their domestic circuit, you’ll see there are a few fine cricketers ready to come in. Guys like Michael Clarke (part of the team here), Ashley Noffke, Cameron White would do any country proud. There won’t be a bad Australian side. Their system is too good to allow that. There might be a relatively lean patch ahead that will give other countries to move up, but there will be another Australian resurgence.’’

The point about The System is one that has been made often down the years. Whatever the sport, if the Aussies play it, they are good at it. But a statistic that might concern the positive thinkers somewhat is that the Aussie youth is moving away from cricket. No mass exodus yet, but research findings show that soccer and Australian Rules football are attracting more youngsters these days than in the past.

‘‘The numbers might be going down somewhat, but it’s still substantial’’, says Bevan. ‘‘The important thing is to bring in the numbers and then concentrate on the training. Soccer is played a lot by the youth but cricket still maintains its stature.’’

p>We go back to Martyn, who then admits that, come World Cup 2007, the line-up defending the trophy might wear a completely different look. ‘‘You have to say that. We have to look after ourselves and try to stay fit, but there might well be new guys, different guys. Which of course makes every tournament from now on part of a learning curve for us. We’ll have to try out new guys and some of us might go away.’’

Either way, the ‘‘learning curve’’ argument seems to be the only practical one. Injuries have come too thick and fast in Australian cricket over the past couple of years and the fast bowlers, especially, have had a tough time of it. World Cup 2007 is definitely going to see the changed face of Australian cricket and how the Aussie ‘‘system’’ handles the interim period is of prime interest.