Cricket: Struggling Aussies choking on defeats

By RICHARD BOOCK

PERTH - For those of us labouring under the impression that New Zealanders take their sporting disappointments too seriously, spare a thought for the neighbours across the pond.

They might have more world champions and Olympic gold medals than a Kiwi can poke a stick at, but in the past four weeks the Australians' seemingly bullet-proof confidence has been exposed as a mere veneer.

First the Wallaby rugby team managed the unthinkable and lost to England and France, then the Socceroos stumbled out of the World Cup. Matters reached their nadir at the weekend when the apparently invincible tennis team lost the Davis Cup final to France - at home and on grass.

The Kangaroo rugby league side suffered a scarcely believable hiccup when Great Britain beat them in the first test; boxer Anthony Mundine's promise to go "flat out" in his world title bout against Sven Ottke was carried out to the letter, and the much-loved and talked about national cricket team were outplayed by the Kiwis at Perth.

A glance at letters to the editor columns in newspapers across the country give some idea of the anguish being felt.

"First the Tampa, then the election, followed by rugby, soccer, tennis and cricket. We just don't stand as tall any more."

And another: "We've lost the Davis Cup, we won't be going to the World Cup and we may have to wave goodbye to the Transtasman Cup [cricket]. Forget about the sharemarket, employment and the exchange rate - Australia is in recession."

The Davis Cup loss was possibly felt the most keenly, but the growing disquiet over the performance of the Australian cricket team is beginning to gather momentum, especially as the South Africans have been in Perth for the past couple of days, taking a strong interest in proceedings.

Whatever the pros and cons of the first two weather-affected tests, Stephen Fleming's side managed to court one of the biggest series upsets in living memory in the third, after the debut heroics of Auckland batsman Lou Vincent and another stellar performance from that Harry Potter-like wizard of spin Daniel Vettori.

Vettori's six-wicket bag in the first innings was the second-best innings analysis by a spinner at Perth - and deeply satisfying it was too.

It now remains to be seen whether the poor old Aussies will stay true to form and pull out the safety valve kept for such occasions - the test scoreboard suddenly gets relegated to the small print, alongside the Bourke gumboot-throwing results.