This was published 7 years ago
The Australian cricket team could learn a thing or two from Captain Cranky Allan Border
By Peter FitzSimons
The Australian cricket team did what?
They lost FIVE times on the trot?
They put together the worst individual batting performances for an Australian team, in the last Test, since 1912?
They had 16 dismissals in Hobart where the batsman didn't get out of single freaking figures?
Aussie grit: Allan Border put steel into the Australian Test team when it was most needed.Credit: Ray Kennedy
What the HELL is going on?
I thought you'd never ask.
The first and most obvious thing, based on their performance in Hobart is that – beyond the skipper Steve Smith – barely anyone seems to have a clue as to how to graft a Test innings. Where did all those wafty shots we saw in Hobart come from, those rushes of blood to the head, those needless snicks offered to balls that never had to be played? To my eyes they looked like they belonged in a T20 match, the modern version of "hit and run" I used to play at school and family barbecues. It almost looked as if the skills, the grunt of Test cricket had been lost by our mob.
To who must they look to now for inspiration to get it back?
I say both captain and team must look to Allan Robert Border, who graced the team for a decade-and-a-half from the late 1970s on, and was captain for the last half.
As a Test batsman, they might come better, but never more valuable.
As I noted in a profile I wrote of him a quarter of a century ago, when he became the greatest Test run scorer of all time, "flashy pull shots for six were as rare as low scores from him. Most particularly when the situation was at its most dire, Border was the one who could be counted on to bat on, to put backbone into the Australian innings. In his 25 Test centuries ... only three were scored in Tests won by Australia. As many as 15 were scored in Tests that might well have been lost if Border hadn't batted on. Stoically, unselfishly, constantly." The bloke batted on, and if Australia didn't quite love him for it, we at least deeply respected him for it – and certainly enough to call on him for the most important thing of all. For I noted it in the same profile:
"Then came late 1984 and the nation was rocked by the sight of the then captain Kim Hughes resigning in a televised press conference, committing the unpardonable sin of crying as he did so. We Australians didn't mind our cricketing heroes hugging and kissing each other at the fall of every wicket, if they had to, but we'd be DAMNED if we'd have an Australian cricket captain weeping in public. Who could the nation turn to, and count on never to so humiliate Australian manhood again? Allan Robert Border. We knew he'd bat on. Come what may."
And so he did, quickly turning into Captain Cranky – something of a prickly pear with pads on – but, bit by bit, the team's fortunes improved as Border as captain set the tone and players would sooner face the Windies pace attack and concentrate on every ball, than face the death stares and sometimes rants of Border in the dressing room, if ever they carelessly gave their wickets away. His theme was ever and always that Test match cricket was real cricket and required superhuman concentration. For him, it worked, both as captain and player.
And his approach is precisely what is needed now by captain and players. Steve Smith is the one player demonstrably capable of building his innings in the Border manner. Let him also, then, become Captain Cranky and give vent to his feelings. One thing he must know is, the current approach ain't working!
Twitter: @Peter_Fitz