I grew up in the 90s in New Zealand supporting the Vettori/Fleming/Crowe Black Caps who, like everyone else, got trampled by the Aussies. I admired the industrious power and self belief of the cricketing nation.
I now realise I thought of the Aus cricket team the same way I thought of Ivan Drago in Rocky IV. Unstoppable. Everyone else was the underdog when you played Australia. They had the technology and the psychological skills to embarrass any opponent.
At uni I studied sports psychology a little bit and I remember techniques like visualisation, self-talk, goal setting etc. And how old way/new way in particular was used at the Australian Institute of Sport to fix a bowlers technique and longevity (it may have been McGrath). This all added to my reluctant admiration of Aus cricket.
Then I watched The Test. Admittedly, aus cricket hasn't been as good for a long time since Justin Langer turned up but I was struck by how unprofessional it all was. There was certainly no mental edge. Langer's main contribution seemed to be telling people how cool he was considering the team's performance and then swearing out of frustration at people inside a huddle.
I feel like a child who just realised his parents aren't the all-powerful beings I thought they were. This should be a team of specialists staff narrowing down the 0.1% incremental ways to refine the best cricket players in the world's form. How could I have admired Aus so much yet their leadership seemed so tacky? Isn't this the gentleman's game? Was I naive to have thought so highly of the organisation?
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