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| December 4, 2001 | Tuesday | Ramazan 18, 1422 |
Troubled Australians try to cope with sporting failures
SYDNEY, Dec 3: It’s been such a bad month for Australian sport that local newspapers have started issuing health warnings to their regular readers.
One typical message, which appeared in a Sydney broadsheet Monday, simply warned: “Contents may distress readers unaccustomed to Australian sporting failures.”
The bleak warning may have been printed in jest but no-one is laughing because the last month has been a nightmare for Australian sports fans who think it’s their birthright to see their national flag hoisted up stadium flag poles while the strains of Advance Australia Fair fill the air.
It all began when Australia’s world champion rugby union team lost a one-off Test to England in London.
The Wallabies had already beaten the combined strength of the British and Irish Lions as well as retaining the Tri-Nations trophy from New Zealand and South Africa to confirm their place as the best side in the world.
If losing to England was embarrassing, the following week’s defeat to a young French team was humiliating and already critics are demanding a complete rebuilding of the team before the 2003 World Cup.
The day after the Wallabies lost to England, Australia’s rugby league team crashed to an equally depressing defeat against Britain. The Kangaroos hadn’t lost a series in Britain since 1959 but were staring down the barrel after their defeat in the series opener.
They eventually recovered to win the series but the result of the first match ended any illusions they were invincible.
But the worst was still to come. For all their success in sports ranging from tennis and rugby to surfing and skiing, soccer remains the one sport Australia has never excelled in.
The season began well enough when they romped through the Oceania phase of the World Cup qualifiers, setting world records for goalscoring.
The ultimate dream of reaching the World Cup finals also looked to be well in hand when they beat twice former world champions Uruguay 1-0 in the first leg of their playoff to decide the last place in next year’s tournament.
But the Socceroos somehow managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory to crash out 3-1 on aggregate.
The one team you can always rely on in Australian sport is the national cricket team. Or so it seemed.
Like their rugby union and rugby league counterparts, they are also the world champions, but are suddenly struggling against weaker opposition.
A generous declaration almost saw them lose the first Test in their series against New Zealand after rain had spoiled any real chance of a result. The second Test was also hit by bad weather and there were more humiliations to come in the third.
Four Kiwi batsmen scored centuries in the same innings while Australia’s leg spinner Shane Warne joined the club of tortured players to get out for 99.
Among all the misery, a glimmer of hope emerged — the Davis Cup final, at home against France.
With a team boasting world number one Lleyton Hewitt, former world number one Patrick Rafter and one half of the world’s best doubles team in Todd Woodbridge, surely Australia were destined to win the annual men’s tennis event.
But, once again, when victory seemed assured, Australia managed to find their way to defeat.
The Australians had already made one big mistake by playing the final on grass when their best two players had won their only major grand slam titles on hard courts.
But they made a bigger error by switching their doubles team at the last-minute, triggering a chain of events that saw France win the title to deal Australian sport another blow.—Reuters
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