Graeme Smith WILL Make You Hate The 9th, No Doubt About It

                

And so it happened, with barely so much as a whimper, let alone a bang. The event this site has practically been built around, from its very inception. The crowning glory of a year of blogging (and many more years of unofficial, but still unwavering, hatred and antipathy).

Australia are no longer big dogs. WOO HOO!!!!! YEEEEAAA MO'FUCKA!!!!!!! If we could actually afford champagne, the sound of popping corks would still be echoing across the entire antipodean continent ever since the day of the second final at the Gabba. Sure, Australia are still good. They'll probably continue to be very good for a long time. They'll be on or around the top of the ladder, never giving an inch, strong at home, competitive on the road, with a half dozen scary players who could still haunt your dreams and destroy all hopes. But they won't be AUSTRALIA anymore. They days of "The Mighty Australia" are over  -- now they're just another plodding, overgrown, graceless local power. (South Africa without the mental baggage, if you will.)

So what does that mean for Outside The Line? Should we fold up shop? Our basic predictions have essentially been confirmed... Australia's extreme dominance throughout the past decade really was due to the freakish occurrence of having three once-in-a-generation players (Warne, McGrath, Gilchrist) in the same team, with the addition of few overachieving left-handers and a culture of professionalism and competitive ruthlessness filling in the gaps. Of course, it would've been nice if their fall had been sudden and meteoric; if one loss (say, in the 2007 World Cup final) had triggered a chain reaction of blame, recrimination, and player after player being made to walk the plank into instant retirement and ultimate oblivion.

But cricket doesn't work like that. The days are long, the sessions are slow, and even revolutions proceed at the speed of molasses. But they still happen, as the IPL is bound to show everyone in a couple of months. And thank god for that. The sport needs it -- hell, this site needs it. Anyone who doesn't agree with that -- at least to some extent -- should be strapped down like Alex DeLarge, head clamp and scapula in place, and made to watch the current South Africa v. Bangladesh series on a loop for a couple of weeks or so.

Comments

[Ottayan]

Henry,
We delivered.

[D.S. Henry]

You're right, Ottayan. I have to be eternally grateful to India now -- I doubted you guys, but you came back strong and somehow managed to get into the Australian's heads, which not many teams can do. (And it's not the first time.) I'm not sure why that is, but you definitely delivered.

The one who deserves the most credit is Tendulkar. I never thought he'd reach those peaks again but, as I say, he delivered. Nice to see. I hope he keeps it up and slaughters in the IPL.