Opinion ICC World Cup 2023: A live-action show of the magic of Australianism

Never write off the Australians — is one of cricket’s eternal truisms. They might not always be the pre-tournament favourites, they may not always possess established world-beating names, but they have a knack of producing teams that are greater than the sum of their parts, marked by an unyielding spirit and that most quintessential of Australian virtues, unsparing efficiency. It’s a myth, of course, yet the uncanny thing for the audience is that watching Australian cricket means watching that same myth of the Australian spirit turn into empirical fact, as they stack their cabinets with glittering medals and shining trophies.

Their relentless success is too good to be true — in the last two years alone, a period wherein their supremacy is no longer unchallenged, when the cloak of invincibility has long been shed, they have claimed three of the four world titles. The common thread is that in all three — the T20 World Cup in UAE, the World Test Championship in England and the ODI World Cup in India — they were neither the outright favourites nor the most magnificent assembly of talents. There were conspicuous flaws and doubts, there were perceived soft spots, yet they managed to best the tournament’s best team, the hosts, in front of a one lakh-strong home crowd. A month ago, Pakistan left the arena battered and bruised, and is still to recover from the beating. But the lack of support from the crowd would have only fueled them to perform harder. Australia is cricket’s eternal party-spoiler and perennial destiny-rewriter. They alone would have the courage to take on 11 players in the best form of their careers and silence an army of supporters in the stands, and emerge victorious. To beat the odds is their greatest intoxicant, the sole purpose of their sporting lives. It’s a spirit no doubt galvanised by geographic isolation, having to build life in rough terrains, fighting the tough elements. Not just in cricket, the country dominated hockey, produced stellar individual athletes like tennis legends Margaret Court and Rod Laver, the swimmer Ian Thorpe, and footballers Ellyse Perry and Sam Kerr.

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Sporting supremacy is often cyclical, made of inevitable highs and lows. But Australia seems immune to this universal sporting law. For, no other team has dominated cricket as they have for over a century. Whichever decade you take, there has been a phase where beating Australia was the ultimate coming-of-age symbol for other sides. Several cricketing nations have bloomed and withered, but Australia’s domination rages on. They have occasionally stuttered but they always scramble back to their feet. Not always with legendary names in their midst, but with their unbreakable spirit, and what they call Australianism — that courage not to yield or surrender, that defiance to stare back at calamities. And take them head on, to chart a road of success through a path of potholes. Australianism is both myth and reality.