World domination isn’t that far away

Which is why, despite the sparse population — they have less people in the entire continent than any big Indian city — they win so much more than most other countries do. They win in cricket; they win in rugby; they win the Davis Cup and currently have men’s No 1 in Lleyton Hewitt. They win in hockey, supposedly the national sport in India. Ian Thorpe wins most swimming competitions he participates in, usually breaking a few records on the way.

And that’s just the current news.

Australian tennis greats include names like Rod Laver, Evonne Goolagong-Cawley, Ken Rosewall, John Newcombe, Margaret Court, Roy Emerson, Pat Cash. Some of the greatest rugby players of all time — Roger Gould, Michael Lynagh, Nick Farr-Jones, David Campese — are Aussies. Richard ‘Doc’ Charlesworth is one of the greatest hockey player of all time. Dawn Fraser is arguably the greatest ever 100m free-style swimmer. One of her records still stands — of winning gold in the event for three Olympics in a row. Along with Kieren Perkins and Shane Gould, Fraser formed the fabled ‘water babes’ trio of the time.

The reason they excel in most sporting disciplines so much is primarily because of their system. Now, system is a rather vague word. What it encompasses, in concrete terms, are organisation, accountability, professionalism, industry, planning and research. Plus, like mentioned before, there’s the abstract concept of Aussie-ness, something that is omnipresent in all their endeavours, not just in sport. Let’s say it’s something like the Germans in the soccer field. Something more than a professional and never-say-die attitude. Makes sense?

Even a lesser sport in Australia, like basketball, gets tremendous support. Basketball is not a popular sport in Australia. But when their squad went out during the 2000 Olympics, they received massive support. Despite the fact that no one had any expectations from them.

Talking of cricket, the Aussies have played the sport professionally. There may an odd case, like the one against Shane Warne — he is one of the two Aussies, along with Sir Donald Bradman, who were part of Wisden’s five cricketers of the century — but we’ll not discuss the drug issue in the sport or diuretics here.

Some of the other members of cricket’s hall of fame include revered names such as Victor Trumper, Stan McCabe, Bill O’Reilly, Ian Chappell, Dennis Lillee, Archie Jackson, Greg Chappell, Steve Waugh, et al. No mean feat that.

In team sports, one of the trends seen down the years is that after a golden generation, there is usually a slump. Brazilian soccer is an exception of course. But in Australian sports — both individual and team — a prime era is usually followed by another uprising of sorts. The reason for that could be several of the ones we have discussed here. Or, it could be something that the rest of the world hasn’t caught on to yet. But the fact remains that the Australians, and Australianism, and excellence in sports go hand in hand. And the twain hardly ever parts.