Good-Bye Australia

This morning the last of the seven 50 over cricket matches against Australia came to an end with England losing again to give Australia a series win of 6 - 1 — and they deserved it. It is time to say good-bye Australia. Of course, England were in trouble in this last match - which they lost by 57 runs - from the moment that Australia dismissed the two England opening batsmen for a couple of ducks. If I may paraphrase Oscar Wilde. To lose one opening batsman for a duck may be considered a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness. After England so convincingly trounced Australia in the Ashes Tests these results seem quite extraordinary. But surely, the problem is that the games are pointless. After the five match tests and several 20 over games, why did anyone think that we needed to play seven more one day games. The crowds have faded away as well. I am sure that the England team want to come home. They will be going into a World Cup series in India which begins on 19th February and drags on until 2nd April. If England manage to get to the final, they will then come back to England - win or lose - and start the domestic season. Even the most ardent cricketer will be by then, sick to death of the game and the travel - and India.

The primary reason for all this rubbish is - of course - money. Somebody thought they could make lots of money from this one day series. Even if nobody comes to watch they could still sell the matches to the TV channels in England and Australia. But I think many TV channels will be wondering what they have bought. The series has, of course, given the Australians a renewed belief in their own abilities and, before the World Cup, that is surely bad news for England.

I hope that that this exercise in futility does not have too bad an effect on the England Team in the World Cup but somebody needs to answer for this crackpot schedule.

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